Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”No problem. I’ll call Liu Zhiping right now.” Chen Yansen smiled faintly and agreed readily.

”Thank you, President Chen.” Zhang Yiming breathed a sigh of relief, his heart filled with gratitude.

In his view, the problem could be solved as long as he actively made corrections and quickly deleted the infringing content. At worst, he’d just have to pay a fine.

After all, he had already mentally prepared himself for this when he was scraping content from the major portal websites.

After hanging up, Zhang Yiming took his legal counsel with him. The two went downstairs, got into his modest car, and drove straight to the nearby Inspection Institute.

On the other end, Chen Yansen put down his phone and went back to reviewing the project data.

Zhang Yiming wasn’t his son, and the fact that Lingxi Browser had infringed on copyrights was undeniable. He was just setting off this bomb a little early.

’How can a young man understand the importance of latching onto a powerful backer if he doesn’t suffer a bit?’

Fifteen minutes later, Zhang Yiming walked into the Inspection Institute.

He had thought he wouldn’t be nervous, but when he stepped into the main hall and saw the uniformed inspectors, his heart couldn’t help but skip a beat.

”Can I help you?” The inspector at the reception desk asked, curiously sizing up Zhang Yiming and the legal counsel with him.

”I’m Zhang Yiming, the head of Byte. I’m here to cooperate with the investigation into the copyright infringement issue with Lingxi Browser.”

Zhang Yiming explained slowly.

”Old Wang, take these two to the interrogation room. And let Captain Zhang know that the people from Byte are here,” the inspector shouted to a colleague.

”You’re the head of Byte? What about him?” Old Wang asked as he walked over.

”Company legal counsel,” Zhang Yiming answered truthfully.

”You, come with me.” After speaking, Old Wang led the way to the interrogation room.

The legal counsel was left behind.

Although Zhang Yiming felt a tightness in his chest and shortness of breath, he managed to remain calm. He believed in Chen Yansen’s capabilities and, at the same time, wasn’t too worried about the complaints from companies like Penguin.

A minute later, when he was sitting in a chair facing two inspectors and three staff members from the copyright association, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of panic.

”Mr. Zhang, I am Zhang Zhanhui from the Zhongguan Village Inspection Station, and this is Director Li Zhi from the copyright association. We’ve asked you to come in because the copyright association has received complaints from six companies, including Penguin, NetEase, Sohu, and Sina. They allege that Lingxi Browser has been reprinting their articles without permission, resulting in a total of over sixty million clicks. What do you have to say about that?”

Zhang Zhanhui’s expression was cold as he questioned him in a deep voice.

”Captain Zhang, Director Li, Lingxi Browser is just a technical platform. It uses crawlers to extract summaries, and it ultimately links back to the original news websites. This falls under the ’safe harbor’ principle of Article 23 of the ’Regulations on the Protection of the Right to Information Network Communication,’ so it doesn’t count as infringement.”

Zhang Yiming replied with a calm expression.

”But according to a technical evaluation, Lingxi’s servers have cached the full text of numerous articles, for example, this piece from the Yanjing Evening News, ’The PM2.5 Governance Controversy.’ Others invest significant manpower and resources to gather and write news, and you just take it and use it. What’s the difference between that and stealing?”

Zhang Zhanhui snorted coldly.

A flash of embarrassment crossed Zhang Yiming’s face. He knew what he was doing wasn’t proper, but Byte had no money and no resources. To grow quickly, you had to play rough. ’Which famous entrepreneur ever made it by playing by the rules?’

He leaned forward slightly, his tone sincere. ”Technically, we only store a temporary cache for 72 hours, which complies with Article 5 of the ’Administrative Protection Measures for Internet Copyright.’”

Zhang Zhanhui smiled. He hadn’t expected the other party to be so well-prepared. It was obvious Zhang Yiming had thoroughly studied the regulations and policies before scraping content from the various news outlets.

Li Zhi from the copyright association lifted his eyelids. ”In March and April, Lingxi earned 800,000 yuan from advertising revenue sharing, all based on infringing content. This constitutes illegal income of a huge amount. The minimum sentence is three years, the maximum is seven. Do you understand?”

To put it bluntly, if Lingxi’s actions were defined as simple infringement, things would be much easier. He would just have to delete all the infringing content, apologize to the complainants like Penguin, and pay a fine.

But Li Zhi’s statement clearly aimed to categorize Lingxi’s actions under ’deliberate infringement for the purpose of profit.’

And just as he said, once the nature of the offense changed, so did the liability.

Zhang Yiming panicked. He hurriedly said, ”You both have a point. I’ll go back and strengthen our review mechanism and immediately delete all infringing content to prevent this from happening again.”

”Go back? You’re not going back!” Zhang Zhanhui replied coolly.

’Not going back?’

’What does that mean?’

Zhang Yiming’s mind was buzzing. He opened his mouth, but he was so nervous that no sound came out.

Zhang Zhanhui and Li Zhi exchanged a look before leaving the interrogation room, leaving Zhang Yiming behind.

If it weren’t for the joint complaint from Penguin and the three major portal sites, the copyright association would never have taken on this case by itself.

There were countless small players like Byte in the country. Not only was it impossible for the authorities to manage them all, but even if Penguin were to sue them all, they couldn’t keep up.

Usually, they only dealt with online copyright infringement in a unified manner during a ’Sword Net Operation.’

”Does Penguin really want to send him to jail?”

After leaving the interrogation room, Zhang Zhanhui frowned slightly and pressed the question.

”Just hold him for a day to teach him a lesson. Otherwise, if everyone starts copying him, I’ll be worked to death,” Li Zhi said nonchalantly, raising an eyebrow.

Byte’s legal counsel waited at the Inspection Institute until eight at night. With no news of the outcome, he asked an inspector, ”When will President Zhang be released?”

”Hard to say. It depends on how his case is classified,” the inspector replied.

The legal counsel knew that a different classification meant a different punishment. It could be as short as one day or as long as five or six years.

’Our boss has terrible luck,’ he sighed to himself. ’The product has only been online for a few days, and he’s already been targeted by a behemoth like Penguin.’

Half an hour later, he returned to the company headquarters, his face clouded with worry.

A group of managers from the tech, operations, and Market Department immediately surrounded him. ”How’s the boss?”

”How did you guys know?” the legal counsel asked subconsciously, a look of astonishment on his face.

He and Zhang Yiming hadn’t told anyone they were going to the Inspection Institute to cooperate with an investigation.

”It’s all over the internet!”

”There are tons of products that scrape information from other websites. Why are they picking on us?”

”President Zhang isn’t back? This is bad! He’s not going to do a few years in prison, is he?”

Seeing that Zhang Yiming hadn’t returned, everyone instantly felt the gravity of the situation. A sense of unease settled over them. The head of the tech department, in particular, turned pale, afraid of being implicated.

Some issues are a big nothing, until they’re put on the scales—then, even a thousand pounds can’t hold them down.

A complaint from a small website was completely different from a report filed by six major companies like Penguin, NetEase, and Sohu.

If the higher-ups decided to make an example of Lingxi’s infringement, not only would Zhang Yiming be in trouble, but the rest of them wouldn’t get off easy either.

For a time, panic spread throughout Byte.

Far away in Xucheng, Chen Yansen finished his call with Liu Zhiping and put the matter of Zhang Yiming out of his mind.

「The next morning.」

At the Zhongguan Village Inspection Station, an exhausted Zhang Yiming still couldn’t figure it out. Lingxi Browser had just reached one million users, with fewer than 300,000 daily active users. Why on earth had it attracted the attention of the major portal websites?

At the same time, he also came to understand a certain truth.

The equity given to investors was too fragmented, meaning Byte lacked a single, powerful backer. The moment he ran into a bit of trouble, there was no major figure to support him.

At this very moment, Zhang Yiming felt a pang of regret. He should have sold the entire 25% stake in the seed round to Senlian Capital.

At least then, for the sake of being a fellow Byte shareholder, Chen Yansen would have been more motivated to bail him out.

It was the first day of the May Day holiday, but Zhang Yiming remained at the Inspection Institute until three in the afternoon—exactly 24 hours, a full day and night—before he was finally able to walk out the main gate.

”Delete the offending content as soon as possible, apologize to the infringed parties, pay the fine, and if you do it again, you will be severely punished.”

Zhang Yiming recalled Li Zhi’s warning and groaned inwardly.

More than half of the 5 million yuan from the seed round was already gone. With the money he had left, there was no way he could afford to license content from any of the websites.

The afternoon sun in Yanjing was so bright it made him dizzy.

Zhang Yiming had just reached the main gate when he saw a familiar face. The man was tall and heavyset, blocking a good eight inches of the glaring sunlight, smiling at him.

”President Zhang, my apologies, I’m late,” Gao Weilin said, his voice as pleasant as a spring breeze.

”President Gao, what are you doing here?” Zhang Yiming was stunned and asked curiously.

”Last night, the boss was on the phone until the early hours with President Liu from Penguin, President Ding from NetEase, President Zhang from Sohu, and the others, to successfully mediate on your behalf.” Gao Weilin wiped a bead of non-existent sweat from his forehead, paused, and added, ”President Chen called in a lot of favors for you.”

A warmth spread through Zhang Yiming’s chest, and his eyes reddened. He nearly choked back a sob but managed to hold it in, forcing a smile. ”Thank you, President Chen, and thank you, President Gao,” he said gratefully.

He knew Gao Weilin must have taken a red-eye flight to Yanjing.

”Ah, you. Why make things so hard for yourself?” Gao Weilin said, shaking his head.

Zhang Yiming gave a bitter smile. He understood Gao Weilin’s underlying meaning.

Senlian Capital’s initial proposal had been for them to invest 30 million yuan for an 80% stake, while he would contribute 3 million yuan, along with his technology and labor as equity, for a 20% stake.

But after leaving Hang City and returning to Yanjing, Zhang Yiming had second thoughts. He was reluctant to give up a controlling stake and worried that Senlian Capital’s large share would threaten his authority. So, he brought in three other angel investors to complete Byte’s seed round alongside Senlian Capital.

He had achieved his goal, but Senlian Capital’s support for Lingxi Browser became extremely limited as a result.

In contrast, Liang Bo, who had left to join Today Technology, had started a month later than him, but his product’s user base was already in the tens of millions.

Content-wise, he had even secured licenses from platforms like Penguin, Sohu, NetEase, Sina, and Youku.

Meanwhile, he had to act like a thief, constantly living in fear.

In that moment, Zhang Yiming finally understood!

A bigger bun is still no match for a slice of cake!

He was sick and tired of the days without a powerful backer.

He knew very well that if Byte were a subsidiary of Senlian Capital, companies like Penguin, Sohu, and NetEase would think twice before filing a complaint.

”President Gao, does Senlian have any intention of increasing its stake in Byte?” Zhang Yiming asked, looking at Gao Weilin with anticipation.

”Of course, but there’s no rush to talk about investment. First, let’s go to the hotel, take a shower, change our clothes, and wash away the bad luck.”

Gao Weilin waved his hand, indicating he had even prepared pomelo leaves for Zhang Yiming.

Can’t be helped; he was from Hong Kong Island and was rather superstitious about these things.

Zhang Yiming was deeply moved. He slung an arm around Gao Weilin’s shoulder and said, ”President Gao, I wasn’t thinking clearly before. Please forgive me if I offended you in any way. Tonight, I’ll make it up to you at Jingzhao Prefect.”

”Aiya, get away from me! You stink.”

Gao Weilin teased with a laugh.

”Hahaha, I guess I do smell a bit.” Zhang Yiming had spent a day in the Inspection Institute, and his personality had become noticeably calmer, as if he’d had a profound epiphany.

The two went to the hotel first. Zhang Yiming quickly washed up, changed into a set of clean clothes, and then immediately rushed back to Byte headquarters.

If he didn’t get back soon, his employees might all quit.

When Zhang Yiming appeared with Gao Weilin, the members of Byte felt a great sense of relief and let out a collective sigh.

Upon learning that Senlian Capital would step in to resolve Lingxi’s copyright issues and was planning an additional investment of 20 million yuan, everyone cheered, their faces breaking into broad smiles.

Zhang Yiming glanced around, taking in his subordinates’ reactions, and couldn’t help but sigh softly. ’Was I really wrong before?’