Chapter 28: Saint Games Acquisition (Part 3)

Chapter 28 Saint Games Acquisition (III)

One day in late July, the due diligence came to a close. Fanhai's tender offer took effect, and the acquisition officially kicked off, scheduled to run for one month.

Because Saint Games' board had quietly advised major shareholders to hold onto their shares, and Fanhai's tender price couldn't compare with offers carrying several-hundred-percent premiums, the number of shareholders who ultimately accepted the offer and sold their shares was not particularly large. By the time the tender expired, Fanhai held a total of 31%.

Since it was a friendly "white knight" acquisition, the tender price was negotiated between Fanhai and Saint Games' board.

Seeing this situation, Qinghui, after extending its tender several times, finally announced it would not extend again, and Qinghui's offer thus lapsed.

Qinghui could have raised its bid, of course, but since Fanhai, as the white knight, already had Saint Games' support, and the two sides had comparable financial strength, Qinghui's odds of winning were slim.

Saint Games' immediate crisis was averted.

Now, the question was whether Fanhai Group would move to increase its stake three months down the line.

Jing Hong hadn't expected Saint Games to be so actively present during the three-month wait—they pushed Fanhai, as Saint Games' largest shareholder, to help bring Expedition into China and immediately clear the toughest hurdle for market entry: government approval.

The standards for official approval had always been somewhat erratic, and Saint Games needed a corporate heavyweight with strong government ties and a proven record of clearing regulatory review to help it out.

But Jing Hong signaled for the company to hold steady, resorting to the same stalling tactic.

They dragged it out a week, then another.

Saint Games' management grew increasingly anxious, pressing Fanhai repeatedly, even going so far as to feign carelessness and sabotage another online game Fanhai was agenting and co-operating on—by introducing a bug. Fanhai immediately shut down that game's servers in China and only restored them the next day after everything was resolved, as if nothing had happened between the two sides.

...

Time ticked by, and the three-month "no-stake-increase" period for Saint Games was drawing to a close.

Just before it ended, Jing Hong flew to Dalian for a professional IT leaders' summit.

Jing Hong hadn't originally planned to go, but the general manager of Fanhai's "Fanhai Entertainment" division had abruptly resigned. HR Director Ye had screened one candidate after another and ultimately concluded that an SVP at Qinghui Group would be a perfect fit. This SVP was currently stationed at Qinghui's Shanghai branch.

The problem was, after conversations, this SVP from Qinghui showed little interest in "jumping ship"—she had already been at Qinghui for 18 years.

Making a special trip to Qinghui's Shanghai office just to see this SVP would have seemed like too big a production. So, upon learning she'd be attending the Dalian summit, Jing Hong decided on the spot to go too, and arranged to meet her at a café near the venue for a casual chat. After a brief hesitation, she agreed.

So the day before the summit, upon arriving in Dalian, Jing Hong went straight to the agreed-upon café.

The café was atmospheric—the owner had turned it into a tropical rainforest, with lush greenery artfully arranged. The private rooms upstairs were like little wooden cabins, built entirely of wood, with clean, bright floor-to-ceiling windows. Beneath the cabins, decorative wooden shells tightly wrapped the support pillars. The whole café felt like a rainforest in the middle of the city.

As Jing Hong was climbing the stairs, the café door suddenly opened, and a handsome man walked out from inside.

"..." Jing Hong stopped in his tracks.

It was Zhou Chang.

Seeing Jing Hong, Zhou Chang was momentarily taken aback. It was cold today, and Jing Hong wore a woolen overcoat with a fur collar—the long black fur lightly brushed his chin and wrapped halfway around his neck, making it look even fairer, slimmer, and more elegant. Jing Hong hadn't buttoned his coat, and he stood straight and tall.

Zhou Chang had glanced at the IT summit's guest list earlier and knew Jing Hong wasn't on it. Seeing him now, he was startled at first, but a tingling sensation soon crept up his spine. The displeasure from the earlier cooperation talks eased somewhat from his expression as he asked, "President Jing, what made you suddenly decide to come to this Dalian summit?"

"President Zhou." Jing Hong greeted him, then said into his Bluetooth earpiece, "Hold on, ran into an acquaintance," before offering a polite smile and replying, "The organizers were insistent I come. And then I thought—I skipped the past two years, and they say things come in threes. So I decided on the spur of the moment to attend."

"I see." Zhou Chang had his coat draped over one arm. He nodded, then asked, "Here at this café to meet a client?"

"Not at all," Jing Hong said. "Meeting an old classmate. I rarely come to Dalian, so since I was here, old friends suggested we catch up. It's late, so they were considerate—they came over to my hotel area for drinks and a chat. Very last-minute."

Zhou Chang nodded again. Jing Hong was, of course, busy—if old classmates wanted to see him, meeting near the hotel was the only option.

Jing Hong asked in return, "And you, President Zhou?"

"Meeting a partner," Zhou Chang said, his voice more relaxed, not as distant as before. "We discussed the next phase of cooperation, but nothing much came of it."

"That's normal," Jing Hong said. "Well then, President Zhou, I'll head in now. See you around."

Zhou Chang stared at Jing Hong's slightly upturned eyes and said, "Mm, see you around."

And so the two walked past each other.

The Dalian winter was cold. After parting from Jing Hong, Zhou Chang lingered on the steps for a few seconds, watching the puff of mist Jing Hong had exhaled slowly dissipate and vanish completely, leaving no trace in the air, before finally looking away and walking down the steps.

Inside the café, Jing Hong looked around and finally spotted Zhang Li in a corner.

Zhang Li was in her mid-forties, with long permed hair and a fairly gentle appearance.

"President Jing," Zhang Li said as Jing Hong walked over. She glanced out the window, looking somewhat tense, and continued, "I just ran into President Zhou out front."

"Mm," Jing Hong said. "I ran into him at the entrance too."

Zhang Li asked, "Should we find somewhere else?"

Jing Hong fully understood the anxiety of someone coming to discuss a job change only to bump into their current boss. He mulled it over and said, "He probably won't come back. If you're still uneasy, we can go upstairs and find a spot with a view of the entrance."

Zhang Li nodded.

So the two went upstairs, each ordered a coffee, and Jing Hong began laying out his vision for "Fanhai Entertainment" and expressing his confidence in her abilities.

Although Zhang Li occasionally glanced toward the entrance, Jing Hong could tell she was absorbing every word.

Jing Hong once again promised to give her free rein, but in closing, he emphasized: "But if you fail, you fail—no big deal. Don't stress about it. No one can guarantee every product will be a success. Fanhai got where it is today through constant trial and error."

Jing Hong was generally cautious, but he also had deep respect for the market. Often, the market simply couldn't be predicted, and that was that. His speed in launching and killing projects was astonishing—he'd greenlight when it was time and cut when it was time. Zhou Chang was the same way.

Zhang Li looked up.

Having dealt with countless people, Jing Hong was an excellent judge of character.

When entrusted with a major responsibility, people generally displayed one of two attitudes: one was gratitude and excitement, eager to roll up their sleeves and get to work; the other was hesitation, afraid of letting the other person down, afraid of failing to meet expectations. The former was self-focused; the latter was other-focused. What was striking was that men tended toward the former, while women tended toward the latter.

Jing Hong had done his homework on Zhang Li's background.

She came from a rural family, with four younger sisters and a younger brother below her. But Zhang Li herself was smart—she got into Fudan University, earned a master's degree, and joined Qinghui after graduation. She was one of Qinghui's early employees.

It was said that from the day she joined, she worked until midnight every day, never stopping until she hit a certain milestone. She ensured progress every single day, completing all projects well ahead of schedule—sometimes even in half the time, enough to take on another project herself. Moreover, the work she submitted always exceeded what was required—like attaching a plan for the next phase of the project.

Remarkably, despite working this hard, her colleagues didn't resent her. Perhaps because of her many younger siblings, Zhang Li was very adept at navigating interpersonal relationships. Every time she went to Beijing headquarters for cross-departmental meetings, she'd bring gifts—like cakes from trendy Shanghai shops—and in the office, her humility, modesty, and willingness to help others kept her from making enemies. Her colleagues simply thought, "Zhang Li just likes to work," which was probably true anyway.

As a result, Zhang Li rose steadily and solidly at Qinghui. As a boss, Jing Hong certainly knew very well that people like her would climb fast. Promoted employees weren't necessarily the smartest or most brilliant, but everyone was willing to promote someone who had "worked hard in their group for years, been extremely diligent, and delivered everything on schedule."

And after Zhang Li became a director, she showed an eye for talent. She herself might not have been highly creative, but she had strong judgment—perhaps because she came from the masses, her taste aligned closely with "ordinary folks"—and her subordinates were all impressive, with consistently stellar performance.

And as a boss, "knowing how to manage people" was really all that mattered.

Given this "history," Jing Hong speculated that Zhang Li, who had worked at Qinghui for 18 years, might have considered taking on a new challenge at some point, but faced with all the recognition and headhunting attempts, she had always pulled back.

Based on this, Jing Hong anchored his closing remarks on the theme of "no pressure."

He guessed that in the past, every recruiter who came for Zhang Li had focused on how much they believed in her abilities and how much they expected of her.

However, Jing Hong didn't push it.

Once the talk wrapped up, the coffee meeting was over. Jing Hong stood up, telling her she had two weeks to think the offer over, and Zhang Li agreed.

...

The next day, Jing Hong didn't see Zhou Chang. Because his decision to attend the forum had been made quite late, he hadn't been assigned to the main forum but got squeezed into a side panel instead. With the main goal of meeting Zhang Li done, Jing Hong returned to Beijing after the roundtable discussion.

As for Zhang Li, after mulling it over for a week, she decided to join the Fanhai Group and embrace a new challenge. Jing Hong said he was thrilled to have her.

However, before joining, Zhang Li made one request: she wanted "full hiring and firing power within her department"—she didn't want the group to have a say—she wanted to keep that power for herself. Jing Hong agreed. He knew Zhang Li's greatest strength was her eye for talent.

When Zhang Li resigned to Zhou Chang, he was clearly caught off guard.

His voice was low as always, and he leaned back in his chair, saying, "Resignation? Zhang Li, you've been at Qinghui for 18 years."

"Yes," Zhang Li replied with complete composure. "Having spent 18 years at Qinghui, I'm deeply grateful for the full trust and cultivation of the Qinghui Group. I thought I'd spend my whole career at Qinghui, but now, an opportunity I'm actually interested in came up, and I want to take on a new challenge."

Zhou Chang asked, "Can I ask which company?"

"Fanhai," Zhang Li said, completely unruffled. "However, the work content is entirely different from what I do at Qinghui—I'll be in charge of Fanhai Entertainment, so it's not in competition with your consulting arm. I won't disclose anything, nor will I take any of my team members with me. I hope you'll consider my 18 years here and not enforce the non-compete to make things hard for me, President Zhou."

If he enforced the non-compete, Zhang Li would be blocked from joining a competitor for two years, but Qinghui would have to keep paying her salary the whole time.

But honestly, if an employee really wants to leave, there's no stopping them. They could just go through a staffing agency instead of being a direct hire. Clearly, Zhang Li didn't want to burn bridges, and neither did Zhou Chang.

"Fanhai?" In that instant, it all clicked for Zhou Chang.

He said, "You know salary and benefits are negotiable, right?"

"Yes, thank you, President Zhou," Zhang Li said. "But it has nothing to do with salary or benefits."

Zhou Chang nodded, not trying to talk her out of it, and said to Zhang Li, "Alright, I won't get in your way. I wish you success at Fanhai."

Zhang Li stood up and smiled, plain and sincere. "Thank you, President Zhou."

After a bit more small talk, Zhou Chang finally asked, "This new job—did you talk about it last week in Dalian?"

"Yes," Zhang Li admitted. She didn't like telling pointless lies, so she smiled and said, "You actually bumped into us. It was at the coffee shop back then—President Jing convinced me. I hadn't been interested at first."

Zhou Chang found it absurd. "You didn't even change locations?"

"...No," Zhang Li replied. "President Jing said you wouldn't come back, so we didn't need to waste time."

After Zhang Li left, Zhou Chang still found it hard to believe.

So back in Dalian, Jing Hong's last-minute decision to attend that IT summit was just to poach Zhang Li?

Jing Hong knew Zhang Li was at the summit with him the whole time, and he still flew to Dalian, had her sneak off for a bit, and arranged to meet her at a coffee shop near the hotel?

Jing Hong—right under his nose—poached his people?

Qinghui executives had been poached before, but no one had ever dared to make a move while the target was standing right next to their boss.

How the hell did he have the nerve?

They had even run into each other.

For some reason, Zhou Chang remembered every single word Jing Hong had said that day, crystal clear. He recalled that when he had asked Jing Hong, "What are you doing at the coffee shop?" Jing Hong had answered without a second's hesitation, his face totally calm: "Meeting an old classmate. I rarely come to Dalian, and since I was here this time, old friends suggested getting together. It was late, so they were considerate enough to come to my hotel area for a drink and a chat. It was a last-minute thing."

And yet, he'd been there to poach his people.

Bumping into him hadn't fazed him one bit—he'd still gone through with his original plan, not even bothering to change locations.

Zhou Chang thought: Who said Chinese film and TV was dead?

And Jing Hong had actually managed to convince her. Over the years, countless companies, large and small, had tried to poach Zhang Li, and she'd never been tempted. Yet Jing Hong had somehow persuaded her.

The open position naturally annoyed Zhou Chang, but at the same time, inexplicably, his heart felt like a feather had brushed against it—a faint, itchy little feeling.

He unlocked his phone and, half-jokingly, texted Jing Hong:

"Stop poaching, President Jing."

On the other end, when he saw the message, Jing Hong—who'd been getting more and more fed up with the Saint Games management—suddenly felt his mood lift.

He knew it wasn't a concession or a real request—just Zhou Chang casually needling him.

Jing Hong didn't reply, but as he looked at those five words, his fingers curled slightly, his index finger resting against his lower lip, and he smiled to himself.