Despite maintaining good operational status, Xinye Company faced a cash flow challenge as it sought to expand its operations. To be more precise, this challenge had persisted since Xinye's inception and had become even more pressing after the acquisition of Lianyou Company.
In its five years of existence, Shanghai Xinye had acquired nearly ten companies, successfully executing the feat of a small company taking over larger ones. However, this left the company with a complex ownership structure. When Huang Xuan proposed a plan that essentially amounted to an infusion of capital, it immediately caught the attention of Xinye's internal decision-makers.
In fact, the company's chairman, Yu Liying, who held 68% of the shares, had long been aware of Huang Xuan's identity as the legitimate heir of the Huang family in Jinling. For reasons unknown, he had not disclosed this information to Gan Lizheng.
This situation left the technical director in an awkward position, but it did not affect the company's judgment.
By noon the next day, Xinye's chairman, Yu Liying, along with four other board members, arrived simultaneously at the Sheraton Hotel in Stone City.
To them, the new encryption program was important, and the 12 million yuan in capital was also crucial. However, Huang Xuan's identity was even more significant. Establishing even the slightest connection with the Huang family in Jinling could prove beneficial. On the other hand, Huang Xuan, though not particularly interested in running a company, found it appealing to invest his money reasonably to prevent his mother from confiscating it again. A well-run company with great potential seemed like a good way to do that.
Of course, what mattered most was that Lorin was interested. Lorin's original remark was, "I've heard of this company."
For Huang Xuan, that was enough.
The atmosphere during the meeting was friendly and relaxed. After the initial greetings, Yu Liying's first words were, "Welcome, Mr. Huang Xuan, to the Xinye board of directors."
From that point on, the discussions could be characterized as enhancing friendship.
Yu Liying was a man in his sixties, with graying hair. It was unusual, at least in the Chinese context, for someone of his age to be running a high-tech software company. To be precise, he didn't know much about computers, but he understood people and knew how to manage a business.
Xinye's development trajectory showed that Yu Liying's main strategies were acquisitions and poaching talent. He acquired companies, bought programs, and recruited outstanding employees. This made an elderly man who knew little about software a significant player in China's software industry.
Although his methods weren't always admirable, Yu Liying's business practices were generally clean. After reading Lorin's dossier and coming to this conclusion, Huang Xuan's attitude improved. Like his family, he believed that business wasn't about discussing ethics; the highest praise for business conduct was simply being clean.
The other three board members were about the same age as Gan Lizheng and seemed to come from technical backgrounds. They were full of praise for Huang Xuan's programs, speaking at length about them, which made Huang Xuan feel slightly embarrassed and unable to respond. He couldn't even understand the annotations in the programs, let alone discuss them with others. Even with Lorin's help, there wasn't much he could contribute—Lorin was good at rote learning, but not at handling nuanced questions.
As a result, Huang Xuan found himself having to engage in friendly conversation with Yu Liying, which felt strange. He had imagined that doing business like his mother or uncles would be something for his thirties or forties, but here he was, achieving it in his third year of middle school. It was somewhat satisfying.
After finishing a cup of tea, Huang Xuan couldn't help but ask first, "Mr. Yu, what do you think of my proposal?"
"In principle, it's acceptable," Yu Liying replied with a reassuring smile. "However, due to the number of shareholders, we may need to adjust the equity structure."
"How would you adjust it?"
"21% equity, plus 50% of the software's revenue share for the first year."
Huang Xuan thought to himself that there might not be many buyers for this type of software within a year.
The key difference in Lorin's software wasn't the encryption method or the security of the passwords, but rather the encryption model it used. It didn't rely on mathematical puzzles or physical problems (like quantum cryptography) for encryption but instead depended entirely on the encryption program itself.
In this software, as long as a reference object was set—like an apple—it would use a pre-set formula to extract the necessary elements, arrange them into a database as a public key, and generate a set of numbers as a private key. The public key could be shared, while the private key would be kept by the user. The formula was generated randomly. Since the private key was part of the public key's arrangement, the more complex the database, the more possible arrangements, making the password more secure. You could choose only the apple's shape or even its DNA to determine the database.
This concept was entirely different from previous encryption programs. At least in Huang Xuan's era, encryption was paired with simplicity. But Lorin's software completely ignored the requirement for simplicity. This allowed different users to configure encryption programs at varying levels of complexity. Additionally, because the database could theoretically be infinitely large, the reference objects could also be infinitely varied—cups, apples, satellites, the moon, or even abstract thoughts could be used to create databases. Everything depended on your needs. Meanwhile, the database only considered compatibility and was generated by random formulas, so the public key couldn't reveal the private key's content. Even if you tried every possible formula through brute force, you would only get the database, not the private key. The main advantage of this approach was that traditional methods of cracking passwords would become obsolete. It also addressed many pressing issues—many encryption programs, including modern ones, claimed that even a supercomputer would take decades to crack them. However, with the rapid advancement of computing technology, it often only took a few years to surpass the capabilities of the supercomputers used in those calculations. In other words, the estimated time needed to crack passwords based on past standards was meaningless. Often, sensitive information could be compromised before its intended release date due to these advances in technology. Lorin's software, however, didn't face such issues.
"This is 50 years ahead of its time," Gan Lizheng said decisively.
Huang Xuan thought to himself, You're right.
After some consideration, Huang Xuan replied in a calm tone, "24% equity, plus 30% of the revenue share over the next 10 years."
Extending the return on investment over a longer period is a safe investment strategy. Of course, while this lowers risk, it also reduces the rate of return. The other side clearly understood this as well. After much deliberation, Yu Liying said, "24% equity is fine, but the revenue share can only be for three years—three years at 35%. Any more, and the shareholders will be upset."
The other three board members nodded in agreement. Huang Xuan shrugged and said, "Alright, let's go with that." Selling a program twice was a good deal, and even if it was worth more, he was satisfied—especially since Lorin was still around.