Chapter 1 Returning to Casino, 1997 Ahead of Schedule

Of course, she stayed at Yin Liuli's apartment that night.

When Su Yehao wasn't around, she was too afraid to watch certain movies alone. She was timid but also addicted to them, so while Su Yehao was visiting, she took out a disc she kept in the cabinet and chose one to watch.

It was *A Chinese Ghost Story III*, from a few years prior.

At first, Su Yehao was pleasantly surprised, thinking he'd found a movie he hadn't seen before. But after seeing the old monk inside, he realized he had some recollection of it. This didn't stop him from watching with relish.

Hugging his arm, she found a comfortable position on the sofa. With the central air conditioning on, Yin Liuli felt a bit cold, so she helped him cover up with a thin blanket and asked curiously,

"Have you ever met the actress who played Nie Xiaoqian in Hong Kong? I think she's very beautiful. I grew up watching her movies. I even ran into her promotion in a shopping mall when I went to Taoyuan for vacation, but it was too far away to see clearly. I only remember she was very fair and very thin."

"...An actress from the island?"

"Yeah, didn't you know?"

"I really didn't know that. I've never met her, and I hardly have any contact with celebrities in Hong Kong."

After Su Yehao finished speaking, he suddenly remembered something and said with a smile, "I invested in a promotional film. I almost forgot about it. I wonder how the post-production is going. It should be released soon, just in time for the summer golden period. Hopefully, it'll recoup the costs."

"I heard you mention it. How much does it cost to invest in a movie?" Yin Liuli asked him.

Su Yehao held the girl's arm, which was fair, smooth, and surprisingly soft.

They'd known each other for a long time, and there was a comfortable feeling of an old married couple. Even if they hadn't seen each other for a while, they wouldn't feel estranged when they met again.

He told her,

"The total budget is 20 million Hong Kong dollars. More than 10 million was spent on filming. The crew also went to Singapore, the mainland, and Italy for location shooting. In Hong Kong, it's considered a pretty good large-scale production. The remaining money will be used for promotion in Hong Kong and the mainland, especially in the mainland. Even if the box office loses money, advertising is still worthwhile. A movie ticket might be able to get a few users."

As the number of software users increased, the cost of acquiring customers was constantly decreasing.

It was a pity that the initial investment cost was too high and was limited by the scale of netizens. It still seemed very expensive in the short term.

Unlike tvt, which directly diverted traffic from iCQ, tvt was mainly aimed at mainland netizens. As a "giant" that occupied more than 95% of the market, there was no chance to take a shortcut, so they could only find their own way to continue attracting users.

Yin Liuli had a vague understanding of Su Yehao's business and nodded in a daze.

It was said that the Internet had been developing for thirty or forty years, but in fact, it was only after the emergence of the World Wide Web a few years ago that it lowered the threshold for using the Internet and was truly accepted and began to be popularized on a large scale.

Therefore, most people actually didn't understand Su Yehao's Internet business at all, and their thinking was still stuck on simply buying and selling programs.

Young people were born in contact with the Internet, as if the world should be like this.

However, in this 1998, mainland China had a population of more than one billion, but according to the latest statistics, there were only one million netizens. That is to say, only one in a thousand people was a netizen, and they may not even have frequent access to the Internet. Even if they could grit their teeth and afford a computer, the cost of Internet access was also prohibitive.

It could be seen how early Su Yehao had entered the industry. No wonder he dared to regard the mainland Internet market as a reserved back garden, waiting to be developed step by step.

It wasn't that he didn't pay attention to it and became a hands-off shopkeeper. It was just that he really couldn't find any competitors, so it seemed easy.

After watching the movie, it was already nine-thirty.

Yin Liuli had prepared the water in advance. The two took a bath together, scrubbing each other's backs, enjoying the bubble bath sprinkled with dried rose petals, sitting face to face and chatting, which was especially enjoyable.

There was a surprise after the bath.

She didn't know where she bought some strange things, such as cat ear headbands and a little black dress with a fluffy tail dragging behind her.

After Su Yehao saw it, his eyes widened. He had to make her "meow" a few times to make him happy...

————————————————————

The next morning, at half past nine.

Su Yehao returned to the Su family mansion in Panlong Villa, where his father was waiting for him.

Shaking the newspaper, crossing his legs, and ordering Su Yehao to make tea, Su's father couldn't help but ask curiously, "Xiaohao, is that large sum of money you earned this time still in the market? Or has it been settled and entered your bank account?"

"Anyway, I can sell it at any time. The market should be good next, and I want to continue holding it for a while." Su Yehao also made a cup of tea for himself. The new tea of the new year was not only full of small buds, but even the size was similar, which was definitely a top-quality product, with a faint fragrance.

"Oh, so you're confident?"

Su's father continued to ask, "What I mean is, since you have money anyway, why not take the money to buy land in Guangzhou? Donghuang wants to cooperate with our family this time, and I'm almost squeezed dry. There are only 300 million yuan left in the company's account. What can this little money do? Of course, if the investment market is really good, then you can decide for yourself."

After hearing this, Su Yehao was surprised.

No matter how he listened, it didn't sound like something his father would say. He could clearly detect that his attitude was different from before.

Not understanding the reason for a while, Su Yehao said while pondering,

"It's best to take out a loan first. My money is useful for the time being. When I didn't have money before, I dared to be firmly optimistic about them. Now that the margin of safety is so wide, with the previous profits supporting it, there's no reason to retreat suddenly. The odds of winning are at least 80%. The family's money should be more stable, invested in real estate and manufacturing. I can be more aggressive here and gamble on some reliable high-yield projects."

Su's father, whose worldview had been shattered last night, was still a little confused at this moment, unable to believe that his son actually had the ability to earn 2 billion Hong Kong dollars in a month.

He dared to gesticulate before, but now he suddenly lost his confidence. After all, he didn't understand Su Yehao's business. The facts that had happened in the past year had proved that his experience was useless in his son's business.

For example, Yahoo.

The junk company that Su's father thought didn't make money inexplicably touched the threshold of 5 billion US dollars from more than 1 billion US dollars.

In addition, there was tAt.

When he saw someone offering an valuation of 150 million Hong Kong dollars for it from the accounting firm's data last night, he couldn't figure out why it was worth so much money.

Even at this moment, Su's father still couldn't figure it out, so his attitude naturally softened and he didn't dare to interfere randomly.

Involving profits of hundreds of millions or billions of Hong Kong dollars, it wasn't a small amount of 30 to 50 million. He was afraid that he would accidentally give the wrong advice and be blamed by his precious son, delaying the business.

Su Yehao originally thought that his father would sing a different tune.

Unexpectedly, his old man just nodded and said,

"That makes sense. One charges ahead, and the other is responsible for guarding the rear. As long as one side is protected, there will be no problem. Then let's do that. I'll think of a way to raise money. I'll be responsible for talking to the Zhao family at noon. Don't be so fascinated by their eldest lady that you agree to anything..."