The $500 million valuation truly shocked Niu Qiangdong. He had thought that $300 million would be quite impressive already. A valuation of $500 million was more than ten times the previous valuation of $45 million.

If he sold forty percent of the shares, it would bring in $200 million in development funds. With that capital, he could grow and strengthen the company. It wouldn't even be impossible to quickly overtake Tranquil Online Supermarket.

Upon hearing the $500 million valuation, Niu Qiangdong couldn't help but feel tempted. Forget forty percent of the shares, I'd sell them the whole company for that! At worst, I could take the $500 million, start over, and build a new Qiangdong Company. That would be more than enough.

However, that was just a fleeting thought, and he quickly calmed down. It was clear the other party had no intention of a full acquisition of Qiangdong Company. And Niu Qiangdong was very confident about the future prospects of his company. Even though its actual value was still far from the $500 million valuation, he believed that with $200 million in development funds, a valuation of one billion US dollars wouldn't be far off. But if the company were to grow, selling forty percent of its shares would be too much and detrimental to its equity structure.

"President Chen," Niu Qiangdong said after some thought, "I was wondering if your company would be willing to sign a betting agreement with us." It was the only solution he could think of to obtain more development funds without giving away too much equity.

"A betting agreement?" Chen Xuejiao asked, surprised.

"Yes," Niu Qiangdong explained. "Let's say our Qiangdong Company surpasses Tranquil Online Supermarket within a certain period. If we do, your investment will only grant you a twenty percent stake."

"If we fail to surpass Tranquil Online Supermarket within the stipulated time, then your company will hold a forty percent stake."

"President Niu, I don't think we need to sign any sort of betting agreement," Chen Xuejiao said, shaking her head. "Our boss never said he must acquire forty percent of Qiangdong Company. Twenty percent would be acceptable, for which we would only need to invest $15 million.

"Thirty percent is already plenty, and for that, we would only need to invest $60 million. To be honest, our boss never considered acquiring a forty percent stake. That wouldn't be good for Qiangdong Company's future; it would introduce too many uncertainties.

"But if you're insistent on selling a forty percent stake, we can accept that. However, signing any kind of betting agreement is completely unnecessary.

"Our boss is confident that even without a betting agreement, you will do your utmost to develop Qiangdong Company."

Niu Qiangdong was a bit disappointed to hear they wouldn't sign a betting agreement, but he also felt it was a normal response. He didn't dwell on it, and the two sides began formal negotiations.

Chen Xuejiao had already instructed her team to perform their due diligence, so they had a clear grasp of Qiangdong Company's data, especially its financials. After all, to secure funding, Qiangdong Company was obligated to cooperate with the investor's due diligence and provide detailed, authentic data. Investment negotiations naturally proceeded on the basis of this data. After weighing the pros and cons, Niu Qiangdong chose to sell a thirty percent stake in the company for a $60 million investment. The company's Series A investor, Qi Xin, had no objections. Due to the significant increase in the company's market value, Qi Xin's shares were diluted, but in actuality, he didn't lose out; they became even more valuable.

Even though it seemed like Hualong Investment Company had made a loss for the moment, Yi Anguo didn't feel that way; on the contrary, he believed he had made a considerable gain. Although Tranquil Online Supermarket's existence posed a significant variable for Qiangdong Company, Yi Anguo felt that while there would be an impact, it wouldn't be major. It was just like in the future, even with the emergence of a competitor like Pinduoduo, Qiangdong Company's position would remain stable. The domestic market was so vast that competition from one more company wouldn't spell disaster.

Meanwhile, in Shanghai, an online supermarket called "Number One" had also launched and was developing at a remarkable speed.

Chen Xuejiao was incredibly busy, appearing at one startup after another to make investments. The terms and valuations she offered were so attractive that the entrepreneurs found them difficult to refuse, accepting investments from Hong Kong Hualong Investment Company one after another.

Meanwhile, accompanied by Zhou Mengdie, Yi Anguo met with the founder of Penguin Company, Mahuateng.

Mahuateng looked rather refined, wearing glasses that gave him an air of scholarly elegance. He was dressed in a suit, albeit without a necktie, and still managed to look quite handsome.

To Yi Anguo, Mahuateng had always seemed low-key and steady. He preferred not to show off, instead focusing silently on technology and quietly making a fortune—a true tech nerd.

Mahuateng was originally quite proud of himself. At just thirty-seven, he was already the big boss of a publicly traded company, a tycoon worth tens of billions. But after meeting Yi Anguo, he felt deflated; any sense of superiority vanished completely. Yi Anguo was even younger than him and had a much higher net worth.

Even though Penguin Company has a market value of over $10 billion, my own stake is only about thirteen percent, worth $1.5 billion at most, he thought. Yi Anguo, on the other hand, has a full one-hundred-percent stake in Hualong Investment Company. Hualong invested in Hua Xing Technology and Tranquil Online Supermarket, and while his stake isn't one hundred percent in those, it's over eighty percent. Neither company is public, but their combined valuation is easily several billion US dollars. And now he's about to invest another $2.5 billion into my company. How can I even compare?

During their conversation, Mahuateng explained that he had successfully persuaded their South African investor. Coinciding with the global financial crisis, the company needed cash and was now willing to sell a sixteen percent stake in Penguin Company. Additionally, while Penguin Company itself didn't need funding, several of the company's founding shareholders were interested in selling a combined five percent stake.

In total, that amounted to a twenty-one percent stake in Penguin Company, valued at approximately $2.1 billion. The specific price would be the average share price over the twenty trading days before signing the transfer agreement, plus a twenty-five percent premium. The five percent stake would come from Mahuateng and his founding team selling portions of their own shares.

However, their offer came with a condition: Penguin Company must be allowed to invest in and take a stake in Tranquil Online Supermarket. Mahuateng's proposal was that Penguin Company would merge its own e-commerce operations into Tranquil Online Supermarket at no cost. Furthermore, they would open the Penguin QQ portal to drive traffic to Tranquil Online Supermarket, also for free. In addition to this, they proposed a pure cash investment of one billion US dollars for a twenty percent stake in Tranquil Online Supermarket.

A one-billion-dollar investment for a twenty percent stake effectively valued Tranquil Online Supermarket at $5 billion. A $5 billion valuation was substantial. Although Tranquil Online Supermarket had indeed developed rapidly in the two years since its founding in 2006, its total investment had certainly not exceeded $5 billion. Therefore, this valuation was quite reasonable and demonstrated Penguin Company's sincerity.

What's more, several of Penguin Company's e-commerce subsidiaries would also be bundled into Tranquil Online Supermarket. No matter how one looked at it, Tranquil Online Supermarket was not losing out. It would also receive the invaluable benefit of traffic from Penguin QQ. All Penguin QQ users could click a link directly within the application to jump to Tranquil Online Supermarket's page, where they could conveniently browse and shop.

This aspect was precisely what Yi Anguo valued the most.

Penguin QQ's users numbered in the hundreds of millions nationwide and were still growing rapidly; the traffic was immense. The biggest bottleneck facing Tranquil Online Supermarket's growth was traffic. With the support of Penguin QQ's traffic, Tranquil Online Supermarket's development would be like a tiger that had grown wings.

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