Reborn in Russia as a Big Shot

47. The God of Gamblers' Son-in-Law

The Zhang family, father and daughter, along with director Guo Zijian, have traveled from Hong Kong to Moscow.

The GG company that Li Xiang mentioned only had a registration document, no office location, let alone employees; everything had to start from scratch.

Fortunately, Guo Zijian was familiar with the business and Marina helped him introduce resources, so the studio was quickly set up.

Li Xiang had no direct flights from Vladivostok back to St. Petersburg, so he had to transit in Moscow. Now that he was in Moscow, he felt he had to show some hospitality.

Zhang Baizhi was busy and didn't have time, so it was much simpler to only entertain Zhang Renyong and head straight to the casino.

-

Tverskaya Street, Pushkin Square.

The Shangri-La Casino is the largest casino in Moscow, operated by the British. It boasts top-notch decor, attracts celebrities, and charges an entrance fee of two hundred US dollars per person.

Li Xiang treated everyone to a game of Texas Hold'em. They exchanged 150,000 rubles for chips (about 40,000 RMB) and played as a team. Zhang Renyong played while Li Xiang watched from the side.

With Li Xiang's cheating tips, Zhang Renyong won over 80,000 in less than an hour.

This further strengthened Zhang Renyong's determination to become an apprentice and learn the craft.

"Brother Xiang, are you married?" Zhang Renyong insisted on discussing things separately. If Li Xiang hadn't felt that calling him "Master" was a bit strange, he would have just called him "Master" directly.

"No, but I'm expecting a son soon," Li Xiang shared with a broad smile. "My due date is in two months."

"Then let's get married next year, I need to prepare a big gift for you."

"It's not decided yet." Li Xiang stood up and said as his phone vibrated. "I'll answer the phone."

The call was from Xiao Du. Neither of the two Dus were people who rarely made phone calls unless there was a problem. Li Xiang instinctively felt that something must have gone wrong with VKontakte.

This is a good thing.

Li Xiang had been hoping for VKontakte to collapse so that Xiao Du could start a second business, TeIegram.

He had the advantage of being in a good position, like the Milishvili family, the major shareholders of VKontakte, as a founding investor, acquiring 60% of the shares for tens of thousands of dollars.

Li Xiang went to the corridor to answer the phone. As soon as he picked up the call, Xiao Du hurriedly asked, "Are you in the Red Star server room? My brother and I are coming right away."

"I'm in Moscow, what's up?" Li Xiang frowned slightly.

"VKontakte's user growth is too fast, and the server is overloaded. It just crashed once. I want to rent your server for emergency use. How much does it cost?" Xiao Du spoke very quickly, and you could tell from his voice that he was very anxious.

Li Xiang was a little confused. In his previous life, he studied in Russia and had a very limited impression of VKontakte. It might also be a problem of information cocoon. He was an international student and everyone around him used Facebook.

As I recall, there was indeed a communication software called VK that became very popular in the Russian-speaking world later on.

Is VKontakte the same as VK?

Li Xiang felt something was off. Although the names were similar, the timing didn't match, and VK was a pro-Kremlin app, so it was under very strict control.

The two Dus have the exact opposite philosophy, which is to ignore everything.

"Hey, say something, did you get disconnected?"

Li Xiang quickly snapped out of his daze and said, "We'll talk about the fees later. Let's deal with this as an emergency. I'll call the server room right away, you can just go directly there. If there aren't enough servers, just shut down WeTV, and you can come over."

Da Du's voice came through Xiao Du's phone, "I told you, he's not confused when it comes to important matters."

Xiao Du, unable to contain his excitement, said to Li Xiang, "I can guarantee you now that you won't lose that 120,000. If you want to sell it, I'll help you find a buyer for 1.2 million, and you'll make ten times your initial investment in two months."

"Don't sell it," came Da Du's voice.

"I'm not talking to you anymore, I'm busy loading the truck," Xiao Du reminded him. "Don't forget to call the server room."

"I can't forget it."

After Li Xiang finished his phone call with Xiao Du, he turned to look at Yong Ge, who was eavesdropping. The call was in Russian, which Zhang Renyong couldn't understand at all.

"Why did you come out?"

"I'm afraid of losing if I play by myself," Zhang Renyong said, leaning closer with a grin. "You look so happy, is something good happening?"

"I made some money from my investments."

"What kind of investment is this? Am I even qualified to do it?"

When U-Love-Me signed a contract with China Star, Zhang Renyong was the middleman. He had seen U-Love-Me's brand research information and knew that it was a new company.

Li Xiang is now venturing into the cosmetics industry. What did he do before?

No other business yet?

Zhang Renyong was self-aware enough to know that his current relationship with Li Xiang was far from being at a level where he could participate in core business matters.

That's most likely a trap.

Zhang Renyong simply wanted to use this topic to learn more about the background of the "God of Gamblers' Master." If he wanted to please him, he needed to know what the master liked.

It's certain that men are attracted to women.

He originally wanted to pursue the son-in-law route, but when he inquired, he found out that the man was about to become a father.

"Do you know Facebook?" Li Xiang asked, adding a few more words because he was in a good mood.

"I've seen my daughter use it, but I don't know how to use it." Zhang Renyong doesn't know much about the Internet, but he does know that you can make a lot of money on the Internet.

When the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Hong Kong was one of the hardest-hit areas. Countless people experienced dramatic rises and falls, becoming rich overnight and going bankrupt overnight. It was much more exciting than real estate speculation.

The internet upstarts from the United States also frequently appear in Hong Kong newspapers and media.

"It's the Russian version of Facebook, for chatting," Li Xiang paused and said. "Brother Yong, I'll play with you later, I need to make another call."

Li and Zhang won 12 rubles at the casino. They split the winnings in half and then parted ways. Li Xiang invited Marina to stay overnight, while Zhang Renyong took a taxi back to his hotel.

-

Hotel suite.

"Why are you only just getting back?" Zhang Renyong asked his daughter in a flurry of activity as he opened the door.

"I'm exhausted." Zhang Baizhi pouted as he entered the living room, threw himself onto the sofa, and complained, "I should have finished work at four o'clock, but because of the language barrier, I had to find a translator for everything, and it dragged on until after seven."

Zhang Renyong sat down next to his daughter and said with a smile, "Can you help me check that Book thing, the one you always chat on, how much is it worth?"

"Facebook?" Zhang Baizhi said lazily, nestled on the sofa. "Why are you suddenly interested in it? Want to buy its stock? It's not publicly listed yet."

Zhang Renyong urged, "Check it out."

"Okay, okay, I'll check for you." Although Zhang Baizhi's attitude was somewhat perfunctory, he still helped. He searched for a while using his phone's 2G network and said, "The news says that just a few days ago, on the 12th of this month, Yahoo offered $10 billion to acquire Facebook, but Zuckerberg didn't sell. Okay? They're a private company, it's good enough that I can find some news."

"Can you look it up for me again? What is the Russian version of Facebook? How much is it worth?" Zhang Renyong's eyes started to light up.

"I can't find it." Zhang Baizhi showed his phone to his father.

"Then can you help me estimate how much it's worth?"

"How do you estimate this? If Facebook is worth a billion, then the Russian version is worth two hundred million?" Zhang Baizhi, unwilling to deal with his father, stood up and said, "Don't invest recklessly. If you really have spare money, you should buy an apartment yourself. I'm going to take a shower."

Zhang Renyong sat alone on the sofa, grinning foolishly.

Two hundred million US dollars is now 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars, and it might become even more valuable in the future.

The God of Gamblers' son-in-law, what a coincidence! I didn't agree to let Bai Zhi become a stepmother as soon as he entered the family, but I didn't expect you to have an added bonus.

Zhang Baizhi carried her toiletries and walked towards the bathroom while talking on the phone. Nicholas Tse was talking to her about his vacation in the Philippines after returning from Russia.

The proposal date has already been postponed once, so we absolutely have to confirm it this time.

Zhang Renyong's smile vanished instantly. They started chatting again, saying that the brat had nothing good about him except his face.

The sound of water coming from the bathroom was mixed with Zhang Baizhi's laughter.

I'll hide your passport, let's see how you get to the Philippines!

Zhang Renyong is also a man of action; he does what he thinks of immediately, tiptoeing to rummage through his daughter's luggage.