Chapter 16: The Shuowen Platform
Inside the villa, the place where Li Xinyi usually lived...
Today was Monday. And it was also a Mid-Autumn Festival Holiday today.
It was also a holiday for Xinyi's company employees.
Today, Li Xinyi received another call from another novel-reading platform.
And this call didn't come from any random platform but the largest one among them.
The Shuowen platform.
In this world, if you asked people what the largest novel-reading platform in China was, almost all of them would answer that it was the Shuowen platform.
So in the public's eyes, the Shuowen platform was still undoubtedly the largest novel-reading platform. At least, this was true in current China.
The Shuowen platform chose to call Li Xinyi now. Of course, it was because they had a purpose.
After having some investigations and discussions, the Shuowen platform hoped to buy some of the Xinyi company's shares.
So far, they had collected some information about the Xinyi company before they decided to call Li Xinyi today.
However, they knew only a little or maybe too little about Chen Yize.
For them, they only knew that he had graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science and technology from Imperial University.
Then, he applied for a job everywhere and failed all of them.
Eventually, he chose to apply for a programmer position in the Xinyi company a month later. And he did succeed.
Half a month later, he alone had become the only person who developed [Choice of Robots]. And he was also the one who had come up with the idea of interactive novels.
He was also one of the developers of [XINT].
As for the rest, they didn't know.
And yet, no one could blame them for this because most of the time, after getting a job, he either lay down at home or worked in the company.
So, they didn't know how much Chen Yize had discussed, analyzed, and planned with Li Xinyi and Zhou Wei before the company made any decisions.
They didn't know that, except for being a developer, Chen Yize had also played many other roles and supported the Xinyi company during this time. The time when the company still lacked many essential positions.
Another person was Li Xinyi, and they had also investigated her.
For them, she was undoubtedly a very talented woman. And she also had a background that they couldn't ignore.
She was the only daughter of the Lizi company's president and his secretary.
The Lizi company was a multi-national company that manufactured mobile phones. And Lizi was also one of the most popular brands of mobile phones in the world. All of this, they knew.
So Li Xinyi, as the only daughter, undoubtedly came from a very wealthy background.
And although she had never asked for it, her parents would probably support her whenever possible.
At the very least, her parents would mostly agree to any of her requests, as long as she was willing to ask.
Also, there was another piece of information that they had discovered and found to be noteworthy.
She had graduated with the same degree, in the same department, and from the same university as Chen Yize they had investigated before.
From this, they could see that the two also had another kind of relationship, the relationship of being classmates once.
However, this information didn't attract them for so long before they forgot about it because it was of no use.
As for Zhou Wei? Well, they had also investigated him.
He was the second son of the Tianhai company's president. Which Tianhai company? It was the one who owned the Tianhai app store.
And he was just another rich-second generation in a true sense.
Since he had decided to join the Xinyi company, they only regarded him as another company's programmer and nothing else.
And because of this, they couldn't find any valuable information while investigating him.
So, they decided to stop investigating him in the end.
From everything they had investigated so far, they finally came to a conclusion. The conclusion that they were more inclined to believe.
Currently, Li Xinyi was the one who was in charge of everything except for the development of the company's apps such as [Choice of Robots] and [XINT].
For everything that required decision-making, Li Xinyi was the one who had absolute control.
While in the company, Chen Yize was the complete opposite. He was responsible for or maybe in charge of developing the company's apps.
They thought that the one who had come up with the idea of making an interactive novel was indeed Chen Yize. And the one who had developed [Choice of Robots] was undoubtedly Chen Yize.
But they instead thought that the one who had come up with the idea of releasing [XINT] to the public and letting the Xinyi company gain a firm foothold was Li Xinyi.
And Chen Yize was only responsible for developing it and nothing else.
Because of this, the person they chose to call first was still Li Xinyi.
Because only when she agreed to sell them some of her company's shares could they buy them.
And the reason why they hoped to buy some shares from the Xinyi company was quite simple.
It was because they believed in the Xinyi company's potential. The potential to grow bigger and stronger. And by then, they could earn a lot of money through dividends.
Therefore, they were willing to invest in the Xinyi company.
However, the current situation was still unknown whether the Xinyi company was also willing to sell some of its shares.
And after telling Li Xinyi about their purpose, the person responsible for this matter only heard a cold but still polite rejection.
"No, thanks. I'm not interested."
In the past few days, Li Xinyi had received many calls. And most of them came from those novel-reading platforms.
Some of these platforms had once competed with them, while some hadn't.
And the Shuowen platform that talked with her now was still the former.
It was also the biggest competitor of the Xinyi company at that time.
She had never lacked any funds so far. So, she found it unnecessary to sell the shares of her company to others.
And selling them might even reduce her ownership in the company.
Others could see her company's potential, and she could also see it. So, she was unwilling. Unwilling to give up some of the money she could earn.
And these reasons were also why when others asked her if she could sell the Xinyi company to them, she immediately rejected them without hesitation.
Don't be kidding. The Xinyi company had never lacked any funds. And the company still had the potential to grow. She would sell her company to others only when she was a fool.
And except for some people who had asked if she could sell her company or some of its shares. There was another group of people who had called her these days.
These people instead only asked her if the Xinyi company could cooperate with them.
Most of them had asked her if they could incorporate [XINT] into their platform, so their authors could use it.
Some had also asked her if they could get an exclusive right to incorporate [XINT] into their platform only.
And as long as they were sincere, she mostly agreed to cooperate. Of course, she refused to give any of them the exclusive right they had requested.
But so far, she had never agreed to those who had competed with them before.
Some of them might regret their previous actions. And some might only turn furious with her instead.
However, whatever their thoughts were, Li Xinyi had never cared.
Somehow, she just felt unwilling. Unwilling to cooperate with any of them.
And so, when the Shuowen platform asked her if she could sell them some shares, she immediately rejected them.
"Is there anything else? If not, I will hang up." Li Xinyi was about to hang up after asking, but suddenly, another kind of voice came through the phone.
Obviously, it was another person, different from the one who had called her before.
"Do you think you can succeed every time while being alone?" The person's voice was pretty cold. Yet, in this cold voice hid a mocking tone Li Xinyi could notice.
"What do you mean?" Li Xinyi asked, feeling dissatisfied with this person's attitude.
"I have met many people in my life. And many of them were the same as you, miss." The person continued. "Young and ignorant."
"Sorry, I don't understand." Li Xinyi found that this person seemed to speak something irrelevant. She didn't want to argue about this matter. And so, she was about to hang up.
"It doesn't matter." The person still chose to continue speaking. "You only need to know a reason. The reason why you can't reject us."
"Oh, why can't I?" Li Xinyi raised her eyebrow slightly. Although starting to feel annoyed, she still chose to listen.
"You should know that our platform currently has around 70% of the market share in China. And because of this, most novel readers will choose our platform instead of others." The person started to explain patiently without any hurry at all.
"Yes, I know," Li Xinyi replied. It wasn't difficult for her to learn about it. After all, this platform had once competed with them. So, she had investigated the Shuowen platform before.
"Please don't interrupt me while I'm speaking, miss." The person sounded very patient in contrast to the meaning itself.
"Okay. Please continue." Li Xinyi rolled her eyes, remembering that this person had said 'You should know...' before. This way of the opening was in itself ambiguous.
"So now, our platform still has some rights to speak in this novel-reading platform industry. For example, if we tell other platforms to join forces to boycott your company's products, almost all of them will surely agree." The person started to speak again but in a slightly colder tone this time.
"Are you threatening me?" Li Xinyi asked, and there was a chilly expression in her eyes.
She knew that what this person had said was indeed true.
After all, for most platforms, instead of being the enemy with the Shuowen platform, they would rather be the enemy with them, the Xinyi company.
Because even though the interactive novel industry seemed to have the potential, it was still nothing compared to the traditional online novel industry currently.
While some people started to become interested in interactive novels, most of them were still used to reading the traditional ones.
So, it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth it to be the enemy of the giant just for the sake of the company that only had the 'potential'.
"We will do it as a matter of course, miss, if you don't agree." The person didn't care and made it sound like it was a natural thing to do. "After all, if you choose not to be our ally, we can only regard you as our enemy."
"So, I hope you can think about this matter carefully before giving us an answer, miss," The person said.
"Okay, I will think about it." Li Xinyi gave a short reply before she hung up the phone.
Lying back on the bed, Li Xinyi closed her eyes before she started to ponder.
She found out. If those platforms became united and wanted to boycott the Xinyi company's products altogether, the situation would only become more and more unfavorable for the Xinyi company.
People would start to discover that when using [XINT], they couldn't release their interactive novels on those popular platforms.
And people who loved to read interactive novels wouldn't be able to find any of them written by using [XINT] on the platform they usually used either.
Because of these reasons, even [XINT], which was currently popular, would soon be forgotten by the public in this fierce competition.
"Haha... Young and ignorant, huh?"
And at the moment of realization, Li Xinyi started to let out a dry laugh, laughing at her young and ignorant self.
At this moment, it was the first time for Li Xinyi. The first time this wealthy young lady knew what it meant to feel desperate.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
polarfox369
polarfox369 Author: This chapter ended up longer. Longer than what I had expected.
Chen Yize: So, who dares to bully my future wife?
Have some idea about my story? Comment it and let me know.
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
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