Elon Musk's flight landed at Yanjing Capital Airport at two o 'clock in the morning in Yanjing.
This time, there was only a Chinese female translator who accompanied Elon Musk to Hua Xia. Apart from that, Elon Musk did not bring any PayPal staff.
A driver from Makino Technology's motorcade, as well as a business representative and a public relations representative, picked up Elon Musk and his translator at the airport and took them to the hotel he had booked in advance.
When they settled down in the hotel room, it was a quarter past three in the morning. Because he had slept on the plane, Elon Musk was now full of energy, so he used the laptop he carried with him to connect to the hotel's network and chat with his partner in Silicon Valley, Peter Thiel, through YY.
It was a quarter past twelve in the afternoon in San Francisco. Peter Thiel did not even have time to eat. He first made a video call with Elon Musk to discuss the specific details of this "friendly scam."
Peter Thiel said, "After you got on the plane, I started to release the news to the public. This morning, a lot of Internet media released news. Now the entire Silicon Valley knows that you went to Hua Xia and that you went to see Li Mu."
Elon Musk asked him, "Has eBay contacted you?"
Peter Thiel said, "Not for the time being. I think they must be paying close attention, but before there is definite news, they should not take the initiative to speak."
Elon Musk looked at the time and said, "I have an appointment with Li Mu from ten o 'clock in the morning to five o' clock in the afternoon. There is a public lunch and a private dinner. I just heard from the business representative of Makino Technology that there should be an interview with the Hua Xia media at lunch tomorrow."
Peter Thiel immediately asked excitedly, "Is that so?! Li Mu invited the Hua Xia media? "
Elon Musk nodded. "This is what the business representative of Makino Technology said. It should be correct."
"That's great!" Peter Thiel laughed and said, "If Li Mu takes the initiative to release the matter of meeting you, then it will be even more advantageous for us! When the time comes, I will get the local media to report on it. With Hua Xia's media reporting on it, I will definitely be able to push the momentum of your meeting to even greater heights. I believe that eBay will definitely feel an unprecedented amount of pressure! This is really great news! "
Elon Musk smiled and said, "Yeah, I didn't expect Li Mu to invite the media. So, I'll leave the rest to you and eBay. It's best if you can raise our valuation by 15-20%!"
Peter Thiel nodded and reminded, "By the way, when you meet Li Mu, try to be humble. Although you're trying to use Li Mu to stimulate eBay to offer a higher price, don't let Li Mu see through it. Otherwise, we'll have one more enemy in the future."
Elon Musk immediately said, "You don't have to worry about this. I will definitely handle it well."
"That's good." Peter Thiel smiled and said, "There are less than seven hours before you meet. I think you'd better take the time to rest and conserve your energy before meeting Li Mu. Although it's impossible for him to buy PayPal, maintaining a good personal relationship with him will be of great benefit to us in the future."
Elon Musk smiled and said, "Of course. Hurry up and go eat. I'll go take a shower and rest for a while."
“OK！”
…
At 9: 30 the next morning, Li Mu arrived at Makino Technology on time. When he arrived at Makino Technology, Makino Technology's motorcade had just set off to the hotel where Elon Musk was staying to pick him up and meet Li Mu at the company.
Before Elon Musk arrived, Li Mu called Lin Ching-ah and the editor-in-chief of YY, Wang Nan, to his office to reconfirm their work arrangements for today.
First was Lin Ching-ah. Li Mu asked her to communicate well with all the invited media. Interviews and filming were one thing, but Makino Technology had to decide how to write and publish the press release. If any media published the press release without permission, the cooperation would be permanently terminated in the future.
Second was Wang Nan's side. YY would start a follow-up report on Elon Musk's visit to China this morning. No matter how the report was written, the main theme had to be: Elon Musk went to Hua Xia and paid a visit to Makino Technology in advance.
In addition, Li Mu also asked Lin Ching-ah to contact the headquarters of eBay in advance. Once his talks with Elon Musk broke down and Elon Musk was unwilling to let Makino Technology and eBay invest in PayPal together, Lin Ching-ah would contact eBay directly and tell them clearly that she had no intention of buying PayPal. She wanted them to not make a mistake because of this.
In short, if Li Mu couldn't get on PayPal this time, then he would never let Elon Musk take any benefits from him, directly or indirectly. His ultimate goal was to make him agree to cooperate with him to facilitate the plan of eBay and Makino Technology jointly investing in PayPal.
Makino Technology's motorcade strictly followed the scheduled time. They drove Elon Musk and his accompanying translator to Makino Technology.
Li Mu didn't go out to greet them. Instead, he sat upright in his office, waiting for Elon Musk's visit.
For Li Mu, although Elon Musk was an extremely powerful big shot, he was much weaker than Li Mu in terms of strength. There was no reason for Li Mu to greet him.
Lin Ching-ah personally brought Elon Musk and the accompanying translator to Li Mu's office. When Elon Musk appeared behind Lin Ching-ah and walked into Li Mu's office, Li Mu was nervous for a moment. But after a moment, the nervousness disappeared. This was because Li Mu could see that Elon Musk was really nervous.
Elon Musk entered the door and saw Li Mu. There was a hint of excitement in his nervousness. After Lin Ching-ah introduced him, he walked toward Li Mu, who was sitting on the office chair. Not only was there a smile on his face, but from the moment he stepped forward, Li Mu could see that Elon Musk's right hand was in front of him. It seemed that Elon Musk was ready to shake hands with him.
At this time, Li Mu stood up unhurriedly. He didn't rush out of the office table. Instead, he waited for Elon Musk to come to him.
The two were separated by the wide office table. Elon Musk couldn't hide his excitement and reached out to Li Mu. He said in not very fluent Chinese, "Hello, Mr. Li!"
Li Mu was slightly stunned. But when he saw the Chinese girl behind Elon Musk, he realized that this might be a greeting that Elon Musk had specially learned to greet him.
So, Li Mu smiled and said to him in Chinese, "Hello, Mr. Musk."
After saying this, Li Mu came out of the office table, pointed to the sofa in the reception area, and said to him, "This way, please."
Li Mu's English was very good. In his previous life, he had no problem talking to Elon Musk in English. However, Li Mu felt that this wasn't the time for him to show off his English skills in front of Elon Musk. As the host, and as the target of Elon Musk's "friendship", his status and aura were higher than his. If he spoke English at this time, wouldn't he be giving him too much face?
So, Li Mu had already made up his mind that when he met Elon Musk today, he wouldn't speak a word of English at all.
Elon Musk's female translator whispered something behind him. So, Elon Musk quickly nodded to Li Mu and thanked him. Then, he followed Li Mu to the sofa in the reception area, and the two sat across from each other.
Li Mu didn't arrange for a translator, he only asked Lin Ching-ah to stay and listen. With the addition of Elon Musk and his translator, there were two people on both sides, one man and one woman, so it looked more harmonious.
As soon as Elon Musk sat down, he said to Li Mu in English, "Mr. Li, I've heard of your name for a long time. It's my great honor to meet you here today."
After the accompanying translator translated into Chinese, Li Mu said with a smile, "Mr. Musk, you don't have to be so polite. Although I haven't been to the United States myself, as an Internet employee, I also hope to meet more Silicon Valley elites."
Li Mu didn't say that he had heard of Elon Musk for a long time, nor did he say that he had heard of him or that it was an honor to meet him. He only said that he was interested in meeting Elon Musk, a "Silicon Valley executive." To a certain extent, he was drawing a clear line between himself and Li Mu.
To Elon Musk, Li Mu's achievements at the age of 20 meant that he was on a different level from him. Therefore, he didn't feel that there was anything wrong with Li Mu's way of speaking. He continued with the words he had prepared beforehand, complimenting, "Your company's YY has achieved amazing results in the United States in a short period of time. This is really impressive. Now, YY has become a must-have office software for the entire United States, and even the entire Western elite. I believe that YY's future is limitless!"
Li Mu nodded slightly and said with a smile, "The reason why YY can achieve such a good result is inseparable from the support of PayPal. As the largest online payment channel in the Western society, PayPal's future will be very bright."
Elon Musk smiled modestly and said, "Compared to YY, whether it's product functionality, design concept, technical difficulty, or future development space, PayPal is still far behind."
Li Mu smiled noncommittally and said, "There's a huge difference in the nature and positioning of the two products. It's like a tire and an engine. There's no need to compare the two. As long as they work well together, they can complement each other and develop together."
Elon Musk agreed with Li Mu's metaphor and said, "Mr. Li's metaphor is very appropriate. PayPal and YY are like a tire and an engine. They should work together to give us more room for development."
Li Mu nodded and asked, "Mr. Musk, I wonder why you came all the way to Hua Xia and Makino Technology?"
Elon Musk hesitated for a moment and said the purpose of his visit, "Mr. Lee, I'm here in the hope that PayPal can have a deeper cooperation with YY and Makino Technology."
Li Mu asked him with great interest, "What kind of deeper cooperation is it?"
Elon Musk said, "In terms of capital, because we've been considering selling PayPal recently, I feel that YY's future global strategy will be inseparable from the full support of a global payment channel like PayPal. Therefore, I hope that Mr. Lee can consider if you're interested in buying PayPal."
After saying this, Elon Musk looked at Li Mu nervously. He was most afraid that Li Mu would reject him directly. Li Mu had already arranged for an interview with Hua Xia's media at noon. If he rejected his intention to sell, he was afraid that his attitude would be conveyed through Hua Xia's media at noon. If that happened, once the news reached eBay's ears, his "friendly scam" plan would not have much room for development.
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