Chapter 433: First capital increase

Around 8pm, having taken a bath, Little Xiang Ning sat on the sofa in the living room in a set of yellow pyjamas with watermelon patterns on it. Her long hair was still partially wet.

She was exceptionally well-behaved for once as she even seemed slightly bashful.

Wherever Xu Tingsheng busied himself around doing stuff, her eyes would follow. Finally, "Xu Tingsheng..." came her pretty voice as she bit her lip and played with her fingers, a rare sight for her indeed.

"What is it?" Xu Tingsheng asked.

"Come here, sit down," Little Xiang Ning patted the sofa next to her.

Xu Tingsheng sat down.

"Um, I just twisted my ankle," Little Xiang Ning cast a sidelong look at Xu Tingsheng, a hint of flusteredness in her eyes as she raised her foot with her fingers knit together.

How was this the look of someone who had twisted their ankle?

Xu Tingsheng smiled.

Xiang Ning shot him a glare.

So when she had said no nos allowed, no wild thoughts allowed and definitely no laughing at her, this was what she had been aiming for? As the little episode from the taekwondo training room some time back now came to mind, Xu Tingsheng approached her, asking, "You liked it?"

Little Xiang Ning hastily shook her head and hesitated for a time before finally nodding, her head lowered.

So that was it. Based on his accumulated understanding from both lifetimes and that pair of heated palms, Little Xiang Ning ended up breathing heavily just like the last time till she said, "Alright, Xu Tingsheng, I can't go on anymore." She was especially delicate and gentle tonight as she hugged Uncle tightly.

Really, a sated chick does not know a starving man's hunger.

"Do you want to bully me, Xu Tingsheng?" The person in his embrace suddenly asked softly.

"Huh? No."

"It's fine. What I heard at the restaurant today really got me. My heart aches. I just can't stop thinking how stupid I am. You were walking around and around outside my school, but I just didn't know to look outside. I can just imagine you alone sitting by the roadside late at night, gobbling up the noodles that had already turned cold...can I dote on you some?"

His palm was guided along by her small hand, shivering slightly as it came into her clothes.

Xu Tingsheng drew his hand back.

"What is it?"

"You don't understand. This is potentially lethal. It'll only make it even harder to bear."

"Huh? What's to be done then?"

"I'll take a bath and go to bed."

When Xu Tingsheng awoke the next morning, there was breakfast waiting for him. The porridge was too clumpy and the egg was burnt and split into several portions...also, there was the little girl, some sooty streaks on her face and mild redness on the back of her hands where oil had splattered...and finally, there was the anticipatory look in her eyes.

Xu Tingsheng's happiness was just as simple as that.

"I see Little Xiang Ning has learnt how to dote on others. Thanks!"

"Heh, I'll make some for you everyday then."

"...Nah, I think I'll do it. This kind of thing is the guy's job anyway."

While he knew that this would probably never happen, Xu Tingsheng still dared not respond as he swallowed the 'fragmented salted charcoal egg' as best he could before kissing Xiang Ning's forehead with oil still on his mouth.

......

Many individuals and organisations had actually contacted Xingchen Weibo, expressing their goodwill and a desire to invest. Hu Chen and He Yutan were mentioning this to Xu Tingsheng every other day as they virtually seemed about to cling to his leg and beg him to quickly agree.

Xingchen Technologies was indeed progressing very well, with the sole obstacle being money...

In fact, some of the investment companies had indeed given quite good valuations and would also be of help to them.

However, Xu Tingsheng had still refused them.

If a company possessed sufficient potential, it was far from just money that had to be taken into consideration when accepting outside investment. It also had to consider the background and assistance that the investors could provide.

Still, when the investors in question were too powerful, they might end up obstructing them instead. It would also be tough to handle if things turned sour between them in the future.

This was one of the reasons behind Xu Tingsheng's refusal.

Another reason was that Xu Tingsheng could not bear to part with Xingchen Technologies' shares.

If Weibo could obtain closely knit communities like those on QQ and retain them, forming a positive cycle, that would be equivalent to owning a 'peerless weapon' like QQ in his previous life even if he could only achieve half, even a third of that. Whatever valuations there were in the market right now, they were actually all too low.

Also, there were many other things that Xu Tingsheng still wished to use it for.

Of the three companies that Xu Tingsheng was currently related to, it was only Xingchen Technologies that he currently still had full possession of. In the near future, besides giving some promises and only promises to a limited few like Hu Chen and He Yutan, he would not allow any shares to be given away at all.

While Xu Tingsheng was the biggest shareholder of Zhicheng Real Estate, he only had twenty three percent of its shares. This was not because he had given some away. Instead, be it funds or connections, these had all been supplied by those of the Black Horse Club with Xu Tingsheng merely having been the one managing things. In truth, having lacked money and background at the time, there had not been much that he could do in these areas.

In simple terms, without those of the Black Horse Club, Xu Tingsheng would never have been able to obtain a piece of land in Yanzhou which was not his hometown. Similarly, he would never have been able to preserve the land after its price had skyrocketed and finish its construction.

Therefore, he had actually already benefited in the allocation of Zhicheng's shares as it had nothing to do with generosity and such.

Meanwhile, he was also not very interested in real estate as it was more to obtain funds that he was involved in it. He would not devote his full energies into this area.

While Hucheng was where Xu Tingsheng had started out, he only had thirty four percent of its shares remaining. One of his good points was that he cared about people and relationships more than money, knowing to be grateful and repay others. He could be called generous regarding this trait of his.

Hucheng's shares had been dished out by him just like that.

Old Wai and Li Linlin had been with him at the start as the founding trio as they had experienced their most difficult times in the establishment of Hucheng together. The time and effort and late nights that they had invested in this was actually no less than Xu Tingsheng.

Ma Yun had had the chivalry to give shares to all his companions after Alibaba had become mighty, and it was the same for Xu Tingsheng. Thus, he had not hesitated in the least when allocating those shares to Old Wai and Li Linlin.

The shares of Fang Chen and Fang Yuqing of the Fang family had come when the Xu family had been facing a crisis. Rather than saying that Fang Chen had staged a robbery amidst the fire, it was far more accurate to say that she had delivered timely firewood amidst the snow. She had bought fifteen percent of the shares of a company which had not yet been worth a million at the time at the price of two million, even having given up part of this in the end. Speaking of this, Xu Tingsheng still owed her for that.

Tianyi's shares had been because of Apple, and also because of Huang Yaming who wished to develop in the entertainment industry. Having made this exchange, Xu Tingsheng had received shares of Tianyi in return as this was purely commercial in nature.

As for Lu Zhixin, her contributions and efforts towards Hucheng virtually surpassed his own. For Hucheng to be where it was today, with its future prospects being how they were, she had been an all-important player. Therefore, gifting her ten percent of Hucheng's shares was just a matter of conscience as it was actually still lower than it should be.

In the shares motivational scheme that had come afterwards, virtually all the shareholders had let go of some of their shares, with Lu Zhixin being the sole exception. Xu Tingsheng had filled up her portion for her.

Unless they went into finance, there was actually no longer much room at all for Hucheng to expand into new industries. The only thing it could do was expand in scale and improve its strength. What had happened to Ganji and 58 from his previous life in the end? They had ultimately been expanded and then sold, earning from speculation which drove up prices.

Having expanded into different industries, Hucheng's prospects already surpassed theirs greatly.

Thus, there was actually no longer a need for Xu Tingsheng to participate a lot in Hucheng's affairs. In terms of expansion in scale and steady development, Lu Zhixin would essentially be much more outstanding than him.

Therefore, Xu Tingsheng's focus was completely on Xingchen Technologies now as even his dream of establishing fifty educational training institutes could only be set aside for the future.

As for Xingchen Technologies' most pressing matter at hand, it was to create its own instant communication software before promoting and finally implementing this. They might have to battle QQ too...money was required for this, a lot of money.

In early November, Xu Tingsheng ultimately chose to take 35 million from Hucheng and start work on Xingchen Technologies' instant communication software.

Five days later, Hucheng Tongcheng was selected by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to enter the list of internet enterprises that they would be backing strongly through several policies. In order to capitalise on this wonderful opportunity and develop further, it was rather hastily that Hucheng saw its first capital increase.

The increase in investment required was too great.

Poor as a pauper and severely in debt, Xu Tingsheng gave up the opportunity.

Old Wai and Li Linlin could only give it up.

Fang Yuqing and Fang Chen could only give it up.

Some higher echelons of the company who held more shares could only give it up.

Giving up on participating in this capital increase did not entail that their wealth would lessen as each share would correspondingly magnify in value after the increase. Therefore, they were not suffering a loss from an economic standpoint.

What they would be losing out on was the percentage of shares they held in Hucheng, or rather the voice they had in its decision making.

Those shares that were given up on were respectively purchased by Lu Zhixin and Tianyi.

And so, Xu Tingsheng's percentage of shares in Hucheng was reduced to 29 percent while Lu Zhixin's and Tianyi's respectively rose to 22 percent each.

"How fortunate that your family suddenly has the money, and is also willing to support you! Right now, the two of us combined still hold a majority of the shares," Xu Tingsheng smiled and said to Lu Zhixin when the meeting had ended.

"My father does finance in Hong Kong. Shares and funds, futures, this is just how money is. It comes quickly and goes just as quickly. I actually thought that you don't care about Hucheng anymore," Lu Zhixin replied.

"Of course I care about Hucheng! It's where I started out, and my foundation too," Xu Tingsheng said.

Lu Zhixin nodded, "Right."

"How's the gutter oil investigation going?"

"It's ongoing. We have findings, but it still isn't enough."