I'm back in 1990

Chapter 370: A Girl's Heart Takes Over

For a period of time afterward, Yao Haifeng and others made several invitations to Huang Xiaochuan. Although Huang Xiaochuan declined each time, he always maintained a distance from Yao Haifeng, keeping Yao Haifeng in suspense.

Huang Xiaochuan knew that this guy was approaching him because he wanted to get in touch with Yu Wei and Tang Yuan'an, but how could Huang Xiaochuan let him have his way so easily? Besides, he wouldn't let him have his way. Huang Xiaochuan still remembered the guy's treacherous smile in his past life. It was time for karma to catch up in this life. Perhaps this was a blessing from heaven, giving Huang Xiaochuan a chance for revenge.

Just as Huang Xiaochuan was thinking about how to get evidence to send Yao Haifeng to jail, Zhang Yun suddenly arrived in Shanghai without giving any prior notice.

When she appeared in the Xujiahui office, her air of a business elite stunned the receptionist. Mai Guangde immediately informed Huang Xiaochuan of Zhang Yun's arrival.

Huang Xiaochuan frowned slightly. What was this woman up to, coming to Shanghai without even saying hello?

Huang Xiaochuan met with Zhang Yun in his private library, which offered much more privacy than his office and made it easier for them to discuss matters.

When Zhang Yun was led into the library by Mai Guangde, she was attracted by the modern and traditional style of the decoration and the large number of books, which gave off a strong scholarly atmosphere.

Zhang Yun carefully examined the private library. To the right of the entrance, the entire wall was Huang Xiaochuan's tea cabinet, filled with all kinds of tea. There was also another cabinet specifically for storing teaware, containing various purple clay teapots, gaiwans, tea trays, and various exquisite small teacups.

What Zhang Yun didn't know was that many of the covered bowls and teacups inside were Ming and Qing dynasty imperial porcelain pieces, all of which Huang Xiaochuan had bought piece by piece from official antique shops. Some of them were also bought for him by Cao Charlie at Huang Xiaochuan's behest from auctions in Hong Kong. The prices of these porcelain pieces now are ridiculously cheap compared to twenty years ago.

"This is the first time I've met someone your age who enjoys tea. I brought you a gift; see if you like it." Zhang Yun casually placed a tote bag on Huang Xiaochuan's desk.

Huang Xiaochuan took the cup and gestured for him to sit down: "Please sit down! I know you like coffee, so I won't serve you tea."

After Zhang Yun sat down, she looked at some Ming and Qing dynasty furniture in the library and said, "Where did you get all this furniture? It's so well-matched and tasteful."

Huang Xiaochuan opened the gift Zhang Yun brought. Inside was a pumpkin-shaped purple clay teapot, which looked very antique and had aged quite a bit, judging from the patina. He looked at the inscriptions on the bottom and lid. The bottom was engraved with the words "A pot of clear tea, ten thousand volumes of books, a bright window and a clean table, the joy is boundless." It was signed "Lianzhai".

This method of inscribing poems on the bottom of teapots is a unique technique of Chen Mingyuan, a master teapot maker in the Qing Dynasty. This poem is quite fitting for the atmosphere of Huang Xiaochuan's library.

After careful examination, Huang Xiaochuan confirmed that it was a melon-shaped teapot made by Chen Mingyuan in the Qing Dynasty. The side was also engraved with calligraphy and poems. Huang Xiaochuan fell in love with it at first sight and played with it in his hand. He didn't even pay attention to Zhang Yun talking to him.

Seeing Huang Xiaochuan's delighted expression, Zhang Yun knew she had given him the right gift. She had never seen him wear the watches she had given him before; he always wore an ordinary Omega watch.

After a long pause, Huang Xiaochuan finally asked, "How much did you pay for it?"

"It was bought at an auction. The foreigner didn't know anything about these things, so it didn't cost much. I brought it over for you because I knew you liked it."

"Thank you!"

Huang Xiaochuan genuinely liked it, so he accepted it. Among the Zisha teapots he currently collects in his cabinet, the best ones are a few by Gu Jingzhou. He doesn't have a single one from before the Republic of China era. With this teapot, he can say that he has a treasure to cherish.

"I just asked you where you got all this furniture, and you still haven't told me!"

Zhang Yun was referring to the pair of round-backed chairs, Huang Xiaochuan's desk, and official's hat chair in the room. The rest of the furniture looked new, but they matched the old pieces well.

"Oh, I had someone bring it back from Suzhou. Later, I found a master craftsman to repair it. Otherwise, it was in a terrible state. The armchair you were sitting on was almost used as scrap wood for burning in the stove by the original family."

Zhang Yun's mouth immediately formed an "O" shape, and she touched the armrest of the armchair: "No way? There are actually people using rosewood for chopping firewood?"

Huang Xiaochuan glanced at Zhang Yun: "What's so strange about that? Not everyone knows what huanghuali is, and it's not expensive (referring to the 1990s). Nowadays, only some old carpenters and collectors know that huanghuali is a good wood. Most people who actually use it don't know."

Seeing Zhang Yun drooling over his furniture, Huang Xiaochuan bent down and took out a catalog from a small bookshelf under the desk, handing it to Zhang Yun: "There's a Ming and Qing furniture auction at the Shanghai New City Building in a few days. This is the auction catalog someone gave me. Take a look and see if there's anything you want. You can bid on it yourself then."

Zhang Yun started looking at the catalog as soon as she got it. After flipping through just two pages, her eyes were glued to it. It was full of amazing things! There were so many Ming and Qing dynasty furniture pieces made of rosewood, mahogany, and huanghuali wood. She felt like a mouse that had fallen into a rice jar.

"Are you going or not? Why don't you come too? We can buy all this furniture together?" Zhang Yun said, surprising everyone.

Fortunately, Huang Xiaochuan was sitting very steadily, otherwise he would have strained his back from Zhang Yun's words. Although he had the ability, going to an auction and buying up everything in the room was definitely going to attract hatred!

"Hehe, no need for that trouble. I think you should talk to the auction company privately and negotiate a reasonable price to buy them all. They might agree."

Huang Xiaochuan brewed himself a cup of tea to calm himself down, and then gave Zhang Yun an idea. It wasn't the golden age for collecting Ming and Qing dynasty rosewood and huanghuali furniture yet, so the prices of these pieces were still relatively low. Even if they went to auction, unless they were exquisite pieces used by the Ming and Qing imperial family, they generally wouldn't fetch a high price. Given Zhang Yun's financial strength, there was a high possibility that she could buy them all at once.

"That's a great idea! I'll go find that auction house later."

The two chatted idly for a long time, and Huang Xiaochuan still didn't know why Zhang Yun had suddenly come all this way. Could it be that she came all this way just to give him a purple clay teapot?

"You've been here for ages, and you still haven't told me what you came all this way for?"

Seeing that Huang Xiaochuan had brought up serious matters, Zhang Yun resumed her professional demeanor, taking out several documents from her briefcase and handing them to Huang Xiaochuan.

"There are a few important documents here that need your signature. After you sign them, I have a few more things to tell you."

Huang Xiaochuan opened the documents and read them all through. They contained investment projects and documents for purchasing computer program patents. After reading them, Huang Xiaochuan signed all the documents.

However, he overlooked a computer program patent. After all, he wasn't a professional in the computer industry. Huang Xiaochuan never expected that Zhang Yun would actually buy the patent for the data collection system program of the later famous PageRank for only $300,000, although this amount was a huge sum of money at that time.

After Huang Xiaochuan finished signing all the documents, Zhang Yun told him the purpose of her trip to China.

There were some things that were inconvenient to say over the phone. This involved a huge equity swap transaction, which is why Zhang Yun personally traveled all the way from the West Coast to the East Coast and then across the Pacific Ocean. However, because of her girlish heart, she did not inform Huang Xiaochuan in advance, wanting to catch him off guard.

In other words, Huang Xiaochuan can't read minds. If he knew that Zhang Yun didn't report it in advance because of this, he would definitely curse her out. What a joke!

Zhang Yun came to report to Huang Xiaochuan about the equity swap between Gaze and Microsoft. As the representative of Gaze's major shareholders, Zhang Yun was invited by Microsoft to learn about the Windows 95 operating system. Microsoft is eager to launch this unprecedented computer operating system this year, and in order to make it more perfect, Microsoft hopes to integrate the Gaze browser into this operating system.

However, Microsoft's profit-driven nature made it unwilling to give up this piece of the pie for free. Initially, Microsoft planned to try to buy the root program of the Gaze browser, Mosaic, but someone else beat them to it, and the plan could not be implemented.

They had no choice but to go back to their original plan and propose a comprehensive acquisition of Gaze. However, after discussing it, Gaze's major shareholders decided to use a stock-for-stock swap to maximize everyone's interests.

With Gaze's stock price continuing to rise and the upcoming release of 95, the situation is unfavorable for Microsoft, and the longer it drags on, the worse it will be. Therefore, they want to complete the transaction as soon as possible, and Microsoft's auditing team has now entered Gaze to assess the company's value.

Gaze also hired a professional auditing team to conduct a valuation of the company and Microsoft, and assembled a large negotiation team for this purpose. It was a tedious task, and both sides worked day and night.

Furthermore, Microsoft even sought pressure from the financial group behind Goldman Sachs, trying to force us to compromise, but we temporarily resisted. After all, to get us to concede, they would have to offer real money.

Huang Xiaochuan listened quietly. Regarding how to negotiate with a large company like Microsoft, he believed in leaving professional matters to professionals. This was not like the trade negotiations he had with the Singaporean company, which he could handle on his own.

This deal involves a huge sum of money, not to mention the rapid appreciation of the shares of the two companies over the next twenty years. Even if they give up just one-thousandth now, it will amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in the future. This is not something he can negotiate on his own. Don't underestimate him just because he is a reborn person. He has only been reborn, not ascended to heaven to become a god!

After Zhang Yun finished speaking, Huang Xiaochuan nodded: "Let's proceed according to the plan you agreed upon."