Inside the car, Milo opened a bottle of mineral water, taking several large gulps before twisting the cap back on.
He smiled at Wendy and asked, "How's Yahoo doing?""I don't understand the internet," Wendy replied with a smile. "But our relevant consultants tell me they say Yahoo has enormous potential. I don't understand what 'potential' means either. But I know it's very valuable right now! Dear boss, news came from Wall Street this morning. Investment banks have already given Yahoo a valuation of five hundred million dollars!"This was quite extraordinary, as the company hadn't even been established for two years.In just over a year, it had burned through nearly ten million dollars.Without a single cent of profit.Yet, this was the company whose stock was now in high demand.Milo chuckled."It seems Jerry Yang and David Filo are doing a great job.""Those two young men are very talented, but they're a bit impatient. They want to seize control now, which they certainly wouldn't have considered a few months ago," Wendy said with a shake of her head and a wry smile."Heh," Milo simply chuckled in response.Most of the founders of successful internet giants had similar temperaments.When they were first starting and seeking investment, they were as humble as could be.But once their companies began to grow and achieve success, they became as arrogant as they possibly could.However, most of these people eventually found themselves forced to kneel before capital.Those who didn't kneel either exited the game or became the capital themselves.There was no other way out.The car soon arrived in Santa Clara, San Francisco.It stopped in front of a five- or six-story building.David got out first, followed by Kenny and the other bodyguards, who quickly fanned out.After about a dozen seconds, David returned to open the car door for Milo.Milo wore a tailored black suit, a crisp white shirt, and a dark blue striped tie.Although he was tall, the bespoke tailoring made him look lean rather than bulky.As soon as Milo got out of the car, he saw four or five people crowding around two young men on the steps in front of the building.Jerry Yang was dressed in typical high-achieving Chinese intellectual attire, wearing glasses and looking very refined.David Filo, if his neck were a bit more sunburnt, would resemble a stereotypical American redneck.And in fact, that wasn't far from the truth. David Filo graduated from Tulane University.He was from Louisiana, a typical Southerner.Seeing the young, tall, and handsome Milo get out of the car, David Filo and Jerry Yang were somewhat surprised by Milo's entourage.The last time Milo had come, he hadn't had nearly as many people with him.Seeing Milo walk over, the two also descended the steps with their group. The younger men on both sides walked ahead, quickly meeting."Dear Mr. Blackburn, welcome back to Yahoo!"Before the smiling Milo Blackburn could speak, David Filo preemptively welcomed him.Milo couldn't say he was familiar with these two, either in this life or his previous one.Before his rebirth, he at most knew that Yahoo's founder was Jerry Yang.He hadn't even known of David Filo's existence.This was likely due to his being Chinese in his previous life.Probably because Jerry Yang was Chinese.So, in China, when talking about Yahoo's founders, Jerry Yang was usually mentioned more.But now, Milo felt that David Filo was the more proactive one.David Filo was doing most of the talking."Hello, David, Jerry. The weather in Santa Clara is really nice today," Milo said, extending his hand to shake theirs.After the pleasantries, the two led Milo into the Yahoo office.The company's employees already knew that one of their major investors had arrived. However, they carried on with their work as usual, clearly not very interested in such matters.Jerry Yang and David Filo walked alongside Milo, all with pleasant smiles.The two clearly had a division of labor, at least when dealing with Milo.Jerry Yang occasionally added a comment, while David Filo was the main person talking to Milo.David Filo enthusiastically introduced all the office areas they passed along the way. Milo also asked questions from time to time, and they chatted amiably.Compared to Milo's indifference and calmness during his last visit, this time he was clearly more invested.Last time, he had only stayed for half an hour.After signing the documents and receiving his shares, he had left.David Filo and Jerry Yang naturally attributed this change to the increase in Yahoo's valuation.But the real reason was that during his last visit, Milo had still been focused on relaxing and doing nothing.After being shot at yesterday, his mindset had changed.As the group moved forward, the employees they passed, seeing their bosses interacting well with the investor, also smiled.David Filo and Jerry Yang had initially thought that as a young millionaire, a new author, and supposedly a new film director.Someone with money and involved in artistic creation.Milo shouldn't be very interested in the dull work and environment of an IT company and would quickly become impatient.However, they both saw Milo Blackburn listening intently to David's introductions the entire way.He occasionally showed a thoughtful expression and didn't seem to be feigning interest. He seemed genuinely curious about everything at Yahoo.It was completely different from his last visit.David Filo, who was mainly responsible for the introductions, spoke quickly and had a somewhat jumpy train of thought.At first, David Filo was clearly in a perfunctory state.He would agree with Milo's responses and suggestions, but a hint of disdain could still be heard in his tone.He simply saw Milo as an outsider, even though Milo had spoken from a user's perspective, sharing his user experience.However, when speaking, Milo intentionally mixed in some of the half-baked ideas related to the internet that he had prepared to use against Yahoo's two founders.Although some of them, in the eyes of the two founders, overlapped with ideas the company was already preparing or had already started implementing.There were indeed a few that neither of them nor anyone else in the company had ever considered.So, as they talked, even Jerry Yang, who wasn't as talkative, joined the discussion."Milo, these ideas of yours are really good. No wonder you created such best-selling books. You're truly amazing!" David Filo no longer called him Mr. Blackburn but directly used Milo's name.Milo wore a humble smile on the surface, but inwardly he couldn't help but curl his lips.The things he had just said were all variations of ideas he had seen copied from foreign concepts in China in his previous life.But now, they were being presented as brilliant ideas. Well, now they were Milo's original creations.For example, he had casually mentioned the search function, which hadn't yet appeared.If Yahoo developed this function, he wondered if Google would still be able to be born in two years."Hehe, I've already written down the complete thoughts for these ideas. They're all prepared and in the hands of my team's lawyers. As long as David and Jerry are willing to offer some benefits, I think those documents won't disappoint you!" Milo said with a hint of playful teasing.Milo didn't trust the integrity of these people.Those in the internet industry had no integrity. Those with integrity couldn't survive in this industry.This was the same for both domestic and international internet companies.Milo knew that if he didn't tell them beforehand that he had already protected his ideas.As soon as he left, Yahoo would likely immediately start researching the relevant code!This hadn't mattered before, but now that Milo wanted to enter the internet arena.He naturally wouldn't give away his ideas for free.His intentional performance and the many ambiguous and guiding ideas he had just presented.Were just bait he was laying.