Chapter 312: Yu Liang’s Recognition

Xia Yu, who was called by Yu Liang, felt somewhat surprised, but he followed behind Yu Liang.

An Siyao also wanted to tag along, but was held back by Yu Liang.

Yu Liang then brought Xia Yu along as he went to pick up Yu Ningmeng.

Yu Liang’s primary purpose for coming this time was to hold a meeting; secondarily, he wanted to check in on An Siyao; thirdly, he aimed to see how Yu Ningmeng’s company was progressing.

As for bringing along Xia Yu, it was a tertiary objective—to assess Xia Yu’s capabilities.

Although Yu Ningmeng had told him that Xia Yu had already earned several million from An Tianfeng, those were profits from selling products. Yu family’s company didn’t need someone merely capable of developing products, but rather a helmsman who could lead the group forward.

The car quickly arrived at the destination.

Yu Ningmeng had rented an office floor near Hua University, where more than a dozen people were already working.

Inside Yu Ningmeng’s office, Yu Liang sat behind the desk, reviewing various data reports.

The delivery business wasn’t going particularly smoothly, but it was still within an acceptable range.

“What issues are you currently facing?” Yu Liang asked Yu Ningmeng.

“The first issue is inefficient delivery, and secondly, there aren’t many people willing to give it a try…” Yu Ningmeng listed them one by one.

Xia Yu, having nothing better to do, picked up the documents Yu Liang had set down and started reading.

After skimming through them, he was surprised. Wasn’t this just food delivery?

However, this delivery service seemed rather rudimentary.

Buyers weren’t communicating with a platform directly, but instead placed orders with sellers first, who then contacted the platform? That wasn’t really a platform at all!

They were still using chat software for communication? And each rider was delivering only one order at a time?

There were definitely problems with this plan. However, considering that even the courier industry hadn’t developed much in this world, it wasn’t particularly strange.

He continued flipping through the proposal.

The rustling sound of pages annoyed Yu Liang, who was deep in thought trying to figure out solutions, so he took it out on Xia Yu: “Stop flipping through it. Why don’t you come answer a question instead?”

Seeing Xia Yu’s confused expression, Yu Liang felt a bit smug. Watching Xia Yu, who competed for his granddaughter’s affection, struggle brought him some relief from his irritation.

However, Xia Yu’s confusion wasn’t about how to answer Yu Ningmeng’s questions, but rather what those questions were in the first place.

Yu Liang continued to challenge him: “If you want to marry my granddaughter, you need to have some competence.”

Provoked by Yu Liang, Xia Yu gave up asking for clarification. Instead, flipping through the proposal in his hands, he spoke up: “It’s somewhat wasteful and costly for each rider to handle only one order at a time. It would be better to combine several orders going in the same direction for a single delivery.”

Yu Liang remained noncommittal. This was a rather obvious solution, and answering it wasn’t particularly impressive.

“Using Tencent QQ for work arrangements is also very inefficient. You should develop a dedicated mobile application,” Xia Yu added.

Yu Liang nodded. He had thought of this point himself as well. Considering that mobile applications were currently only used for simple tools, it was already quite remarkable for someone to consider utilizing software.

Xia Yu continued offering more suggestions, which both Yu Liang and Yu Ningmeng found satisfactory.

Yu Liang had started to view Xia Yu with new respect.

“These are all minor details. There’s also a fundamental issue,” Xia Yu looked at Yu Liang and Yu Ningmeng.

Both Yu Liang and Yu Ningmeng focused their attention. Xia Yu had already proven his ability with his previous suggestions, and his advice had been effective.

“We shouldn’t accept orders from the sellers, but rather from the buyers,” Xia Yu said.

Yu Ningmeng’s mind hadn’t quite caught up yet, but Yu Liang’s eyes lit up.

He slapped the table: “Excellent!”

Accepting orders from sellers meant the delivery business was merely an extension of the store, but accepting orders directly from buyers allowed them to bypass the sellers.

Actually, there was more nuance to it.

“What we need to build is a platform, like a forum. The customers should belong to the platform, not to individual sellers,” Xia Yu introduced the concept of a platform, which was still vague in this world.

“We should take the customers away from the stores and develop them into our own users. Once we grow big enough, we can even exert pressure on the stores!” Yu Liang could already envision the future.

Yu Ningmeng finally understood as well, seeing a much broader future for this business.

She approached the computer and began jotting down the ideas forming in her mind.

Yu Liang leaned back in his chair, also brainstorming, though not about food delivery anymore, but the concept of a platform.

If delivery services could operate as a platform, couldn’t other services as well?

Such as a ride-hailing platform? Or a shopping platform?

Yu Liang had originally thought the market was already completely saturated, but now he realized there was still a huge untapped opportunity.

Five minutes later, Yu Ningmeng looked up, excitedly turning toward Xia Yu, ready to say something, but hesitating before speaking.

“What are you thinking?” Yu Liang encouraged Yu Ningmeng to speak freely.

“I’m considering what percentage of shares would be appropriate to give Xia Yu,” Yu Ningmeng believed it was unfair to receive this guidance for free, especially since Xia Yu was practically family.

“What for? It’ll all be his eventually anyway,” Yu Liang’s tone was harsh, but the implication of his words was quite pleasing.

Xia Yu exhaled in relief. It seemed he had passed Yu Liang’s test, and the old man had accepted his relationship with An Siyao.

What he didn’t know was that Yu Liang had some ulterior motives.

Reflecting on the concept of the platform, Yu Liang felt that if he were to pay for it, it might be an extremely large sum.

By saying what he had, he could now enjoy the benefits without paying a dime.

Judging from An Siyao’s attitude, as long as Xia Yu didn’t have an affair or get involved in anything bad, their relationship was practically certain. The group would eventually belong to Xia Yu, and he wasn’t deceiving him.

But if Xia Yu did something to hurt An Siyao and they broke up, these ideas could serve as interest. After all, his granddaughter wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

Either way, Yu Liang wouldn’t lose.

Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Yu Liang was satisfied with his own cleverness.

As for Xia Yu, he wasn’t particularly interested in these internet-based ventures. Internet industries required significant financial, material, and human resources, and even some government support, making it highly unlikely for him to successfully launch one.

He didn’t underestimate the power of capitalists. He believed that once he started, other capitalists would catch wind of it and jump in with massive funding and connections, swallowing him up.

Even if he managed to protect his company through some maneuvering, in the end, he would likely end up like many predecessors, retaining only a small percentage of shares.

In the face of capital, experience wasn’t very useful. This wasn’t a time of rebuilding from scratch anymore; competition was extremely fierce.

With these thoughts, he decided it would be better to focus on when to start drug development. Pharmaceuticals were highly profitable and relied on hard-earned expertise, with real, tangible profits, unlike the many bubbles in internet industries.

Yu Liang, busy returning to organize his ideas, concluded his assessment of Xia Yu and was very satisfied.

In the following days, Yu Ningmeng also threw herself into major reforms but still didn’t forget to keep an eye on Xia Yu and An Siyao.

This disappointed Xia Yu greatly.

One morning, Xia Yu woke up and picked up his phone. He found an email in his inbox with the subject “Tina.”

The sender’s email address was his secondary account.

This wasn’t some supernatural occurrence. Xia Yu had previously set up a program that would send such an email whenever a specific missing person notice appeared on a small forum.

Tina was the English name for Tina. This meant that Tina had something going on, and the girl was using a code to call for his help.