2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 378 Tan Jincheng, kind-hearted since childhood
Tan Jinyue, a 28-month-old child with over 8 months of work experience, was very unhappy when she got home from get off work, pouting.

Zhang Suzhi would just hum in response when she spoke to her.

"What's going on here?"

She's happiest when her boss takes her to the company, because she gets to meet lots of people and receive small gifts.

Looking at the bag Tan Jincheng was carrying, it seemed he had received quite a few gifts.

"My brother and sister are going out to play, but they're not taking me with them," she complained before Tan Jincheng could even answer.

Tan Jincheng said helplessly, "My brother is going to work, not to play."

"Hmph, you said you haven't gone out to play with your sister in a long time, you're trying to lie to me."

Look at her little face, I'll have to be careful what I say in front of her from now on. She's growing up and not so easy to fool anymore.

"What's going on?" Zhang Suzhi asked, puzzled.

"I was going to Shenzhen on a business trip and was thinking of taking Qingqing with me, but the little one overheard and thought we were going on a trip, so she wanted to come along."

When children are being unreasonable, they are not so easy to fool. Tan Jincheng had already tried to persuade her for a while when they were at Orange Technology in the afternoon, but he didn't expect her to remember it again when they were almost home.

This is when Mom has to step in; there has to be someone in the family she can be wary of.

After a barrage of threats and persuasion, including having Tan Jincheng sign many unfair agreements with her and promising to bring her nice toys, he finally managed to appease the little one.

"Does your company also have business in Shenzhen?" After calming her daughter down, Zhang Suzhi asked Tan Jincheng.

She knew that the game company Qingqing managed had a partnership with a company in Shenzhen, but she had never heard her boss mention that FlashChe also had business there.

"Yeah, we bought an electronics factory and are going to make mobile phone batteries. Also, Qingqing is going to visit Tencent. We're not just going there for fun."

Zhang Suzhi smiled and said, "Why are you telling me this? I'm not Jin Yue. Besides, it's been a long time since you two have gone out alone. You're busy with work, but you also need to take care of your personal life. Otherwise, what's the point of making so much money?"

She glanced at Tan Jinyue, who was playing with toys around the corner, and said, "Mom, could you please keep your voice down? I just managed to calm her down. I'm already known as the CEO who takes care of the kids. If I take her on business trips with me, it'll really be confirmed."

"Alright, that's enough. You two go and clean up yourselves. I'll cook." Zhang Suzhi said with a smile as she got up.

It seems that every boy goes through a period of time when he gets a wife and forgets his mother. During the Spring Festival, Zhang Suzhi talked to her future in-laws about the funny things Tan Jincheng did when he was a child.

At that time, Tan Jincheng was only four or five years old. Back then, houses had not yet been allocated, and the family of three squeezed into a very small space, making life relatively difficult.

With his parents busy at work, four- or five-year-old Tan Jincheng tried to steam rice by himself using a small stool. Naturally, he couldn't help at all the first time and ended up wasting a whole pot of rice.

Zhang Suzhi still remembers her son saying that he wanted to get married in the future and have a wife to help his mother cook.

Another time, an old beggar came to his door asking for food. Only Tan Jincheng was home, so he gave all the lotus leaf cakes he had steamed to the old woman.

When Zhang Suzhi returned and asked why he had given her everything, Tan Jincheng replied that the old lady looked a bit like his own grandmother, so he gave her everything.

Lotus leaf cakes are a local delicacy in Yicheng. They are made from wheat flour and brown sugar, and resemble steamed buns. They are wrapped in lotus leaves and steamed in a pot.

It tastes sweet and has a delicate lotus leaf fragrance.

Yicheng is a rice-producing area with a very small wheat yield, so this kind of lotus leaf cake was a rare treat for those born in the 1980s when they were young.

At that time, Tan Jincheng had already started primary school. To be honest, Zhang Suzhi was a little worried after learning the cause and effect of the matter. She was worried that her son might not even be able to keep his own integrity in the future.

Although everyone was in poor condition back then, they weren't starving or thirsty. You could tell he was a liar just by hearing that.

She probably wanted to scam some money, but she ran into an honest kid who thought she really had nothing to eat.

Gu Qingqing had never heard Tan Jincheng mention these things. In fact, Tan Jincheng didn't remember either. He had lived two lifetimes. Who would remember things from when he was a few years old?

I felt a little embarrassed when my mom first mentioned it, but my future mother-in-law helped me out of the awkward situation.

"This shows that the child has been kind since he was a child. Look how generous he is to his employees now. He gives away hundreds of cars without hesitation."

Good, good, good. As expected of a mother-in-law looking at her son-in-law, the more she looks at him, the more pleasing he becomes. Tan Jincheng, who always considered himself a shrewd businessman, has become a kind-hearted person since childhood in his mother-in-law's eyes.

(Ni Jie, Zhang Congxun, and Dong Jinggui each rolled their eyes at him.)
To avoid any unforeseen complications, Tan Jincheng didn't dare stay at home any longer. The next day, after giving Gu Qingqing some instructions at the company, he prepared to leave for Shenzhen.

Gu Qingqing ultimately couldn't resist the temptation of traveling alone, since opportunities to travel together as a couple were truly rare. In the second semester of her junior year, Gu Qingqing attended school only a handful of times. The model student who had never missed a class before had been corrupted by Tan Jincheng.

If you're going on a business trip to Shenzhen, you still need to report it to your counselor and the department leaders.

This is something I learned from Tan Jincheng: while maintaining distance from leaders, you must always have a good attitude so that you can reap more benefits.

Taking Gu Qingqing to Shenzhen wasn't entirely about taking her out for fun. Besides the agreed-upon visit to Tencent (to recruit people), there was another reason: Shen Nanpeng wanted to meet Tan Jincheng.

Shen Nanpeng was quite interested in Orange Technology's current logistics system. In fact, he had intended to learn about it from Tan Jincheng when he was in the capital, but Tan Jincheng was somewhat wary of him at that time, and he didn't know why.

Shen Nanpeng felt that way at the time; Tan Jincheng seemed to be very wary of him.

In 2020, Hurun released a global unicorn list, which included 32 unicorn companies in the logistics sector. Among these 32 logistics companies, 14 had Sequoia Capital's involvement.

There are 16 logistics and express delivery unicorns in China on the list, accounting for half of the global total. Among the 16 Chinese companies, Sequoia Capital led the investment in 8 of them. Except for one company, which entered in the second round, the rest were invested in the first round.

The most famous are naturally Jingdong Logistics and Cainiao. Tan Jincheng happened to have seen this article in his previous life.

My first impression of Tan Jincheng was that this guy must have been in charge of the post station in ancient times in his previous life.

Before Orange Logistics' framework was fully established, Tan Jincheng naturally had to be wary of this guy. If he tried to get involved from the very beginning, he would definitely end up working for him.

The tripartite cooperation has now established the basic framework for Orange Logistics. In addition, the trial operation in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai has accumulated a lot of experience. Overall, things are developing in a positive direction.

Why not Jingdong Logistics? It's simple, Jingdong Logistics doesn't exist yet; Liu Qiangdong hasn't started building his own logistics system.

Currently, only Orange Technology has a logistics system directly linked to the internet. Companies like SF Express, STO Express, YTO Express, ZTO Express, and Yunda Express still tend to follow the model of traditional brick-and-mortar businesses.

Internet + logistics is a brand new concept that Shen Nanpeng, a top investor, could hardly ignore.

Having learned that Tan Jincheng would be coming to Shenzhen, and since he was also in Shenzhen on a business trip at the time, he tried to arrange to meet Tan Jincheng again.

To be honest, Tan Jincheng was a little smug when this top investment guru extended a second meeting invitation, which showed that his achievements had been recognized to some extent.

"If only he had invested in my lithium battery project, I could have bought up all the mines."

On the plane, Tan Jincheng said to Gu Qingqing with some regret, "This big shot is really rich. To be honest, his investment acumen is indeed unique, but he just has a lot of money."

Just like in the logistics and express delivery industry, after investing in a bunch of companies, he's bound to succeed in at least one. If he succeeds in one, he'll make a fortune.

"If you had told me earlier that you wanted to meet with investors, I would have prepared more materials," Gu Qingqing complained.

"It's not that exaggerated. It's just a meeting. Bringing you here is also to broaden your horizons. You can't usually meet these top investors."

Big-name investors aren't easily fooled. No matter how good your PowerPoint presentation is, they might not be willing to invest in you. On the contrary, if they see something they like about you, they might invest in you.

Unfortunately, although the lithium battery industry is a cutting-edge technology, at present, big players prefer to invest in the internet because it is quick to produce results and generate money rapidly.

If you want to persuade bigwigs to invest in lithium batteries, you should wait until the electronics factories' business takes off before doing so.

While early planning offers the advantage of being first to market and acquiring more resources at a lower cost, the waiting period can also be extremely agonizing.

I once heard a saying: "Starting a company is never the clarion call to charge into battle, but rather the triumphant song to reap the market."

This is why capital tycoons are never afraid of costs and dare to invest before the final round of listing. Just like buying stocks and hitting the daily limit, they make a quick profit and run away.

However, even though Tan Jincheng knew that this method would work, he also knew that it was not suitable for him.

"What if they are really willing to vote for you, but you can't provide complete data?"

"That's easy. After I get off the plane, I'll call my cousin and ask her to prepare some documents, just in case. However, I think this time it should just be a formal meeting, and the investment won't happen so quickly."

After all, he had approached Shen Nanpeng with a guarded attitude last time, so it was impossible for the other party not to sense his attitude.

The foundation of cooperation is trust, even if it's just superficial trust, like the current cooperation between Kaixin.com and QQ Zone and Xiaonei.com.

On the surface, the three major social networking sites are currently exchanging resources and cooperating well through Happy Farm, but they are also capable of stabbing each other in the back.

(End of this chapter)