Chapter 11: Resolution

Gu Cheng had originally intended to use this trap to take down both Park Young-kwan and Zhou Hongyi in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately, due to the incident involving Kim Sung-taek and the chaotic, unauthorized leaks by the paparazzi that night, it was destined that Gu Cheng would not have enough time to dig the trap as deep or as wide as he had hoped.

He was not arrogant enough to believe that his was the only news portal in the world, nor was he confident enough to think his personal influence would hold sway at someone else’s company. Everything had to be played one step at a time, ensuring his homework was solid and the trap was dug as deep as possible. When the day came for the covers to be lifted, he would be ready to push his enemies in.

...

Time passed quickly. Half a month flew by, and the festive atmosphere of the New Year gradually faded. In about ten days, the national political meetings would commence in Beijing. This was a grand event for the Chinese political scene that occurred every ten years, signaling a wave of new and more open administrative policies.

For instance, in the realm of film and television, the status of private investment would be legalized. In the field of online gaming, the question of whether "virtual game items count as property" would finally have a clear legal definition. Furthermore, the commercial activities on the internet would see the implementation of relevant details of the "Contract Law" and inspection procedures for online business licenses, paving the legal way for the birth of Taobao's C2C model a year later.

(Note: Before this, e-commerce existed, but only in a B2C model, where the operator had to be large enough and possess all necessary licenses. Before 2002, opening a small online shop with just a business license was impossible. The earliest e-commerce pioneer, Wang Juntao’s 8848, operated on a model similar to Liu Qiangdong’s JD.com—both were B2C.)

Of course, not all liberalization measures were welcomed by everyone. At the very least, the total marketization of real estate and the ensuing decade-long surge in housing prices would eventually make many victims miss the days of the old, conservative approach.

During these two weeks, Gu Cheng stole moments of leisure, trying his best not to think about mundane affairs. He often drank and laughed with friends at Gao Dasong’s villa recording studio, recording songs and arranging music. He finished the production of both "Hidden Fragrance" and "Chrysanthemum Terrace."

"Hidden Fragrance" was promptly sent to Director Li to be integrated into the opening credits of *The Noble Family*. In less than two weeks, the series would premiere on CCTV Channel 1. The friends who participated in the production all felt these were masterpieces that would be sung across the nation, and they lavished praise on Gu Cheng’s vocal technique, timbre, and creative talent.

The music had been revised once more by Jay Chou, and the arrangement was slightly different, reminiscent of yet distinct from the version in history. Gu Cheng only kept the credit for vocals and lyrics, leaving the composition credit to Jay Chou; there was no need for him to be greedy for such prestige. However, in private gatherings, Jay Chou would candidly admit that these songs were "assigned tasks" where Gu Cheng had set the tone and provided the initial spark.

Since the release of his second album, *Fantasy*, in late November of the previous year, Jay Chou had come to the mainland for the first time at the start of this year to conduct commercial promotional activities. After all, his first album had originally had no chance of entering the mainland market; it was Gu Cheng’s Dingdang Network that gave Jay Chou the opportunity to break into the market and sell 800,000 copies. Historically, the first album to truly make him famous in China was *Fantasy*.

With Gu Cheng’s backing and packaging, Jay Chou’s first trip to the mainland was far less arduous than it had been in history. One must realize that when he came for promotions in early 2002, he was not yet famous; when he appeared on a Mango TV variety show, the station wouldn't even provide him with a boxed lunch, forcing him to pay for takeout himself.

One day, while Gu Cheng, Jay Chou, and Jolin Tsai were at Gao Dasong’s studio preparing behind-the-scenes footage for the "Chrysanthemum Terrace" music video, an urgent call came in.

"Brother Lun, Sister Lin, please excuse me for a moment; I have some business to attend to," Gu Cheng said politely before stepping out to answer his phone.

"Go ahead, Brother Cheng, we know you’re busy," Jay Chou replied easily, treating Gu Cheng like a brother.

Gu Cheng walked to a quiet corner and answered his cousin’s call. He heard an urgent voice: "We’ve monitored a leak on Sohu from the guy whose story we suppressed at NetEase. Even though it won’t blow up into a massive scandal, Park Young-kwan and Zhou Hongyi will likely soon discover that Kim Sung-taek and Du Ming have been exposed. Should we move?"

Gu Cheng’s heart tightened, but he forced himself to stay calm. What had to come would come. "Move!"

...

Park Young-kwan had been collecting money quite happily in Beijing lately. Private server operations were not like official online games, which settled accounts monthly or weekly. Due to the illegal and unstable nature of the business, Zhou Hongyi sold operating rights to his distributors for six months to a year at a time, or even sold the server source code outright and washed his hands of it.

Therefore, the speed of capital recovery for Zhou and Park was incredibly fast. Many "distributors" who specialized in account theft, item selling, and cheating software were wealthy enough to drop millions in cash at once to buy a first-hand private server setup—a significant number of them even poured all the profits they had made from *Legend* over the past six months back into the business to gamble on one big score.

In just 20 days, Zhou Hongyi had collected over 50 million in cash, and Park Young-kwan had brought in over 10 million. Including the technical service fees for helping others set up servers, Park had quickly recouped his initial investment in developing the bootleg version of *Legend* and made an extra few million RMB on top of that.

Moreover, eMade was failing, and Park didn't care about the shareholders behind him. After seeing Zhou Hongyi’s "unorthodox" methods, Park, coming from a country with a strict rule of law, discovered many ways to bypass corporate regulations, conduct private related-party transactions, and funnel all proceeds from grey-market industries directly into private accounts. While raking in the money, Park often marveled at how useless China's "Company Law" was in protecting the interests of small shareholders.

(Note: The domestic "Company Law" at the time was indeed very thin regarding the protection of small shareholders, only being improved after the 2004-2005 revisions. Before that, related-party transactions by major shareholders were quite easy.)

With money in his pocket, life naturally became more indulgent. Park had developed a habit of going to a sauna in a nightclub that had opened just eight months ago in the East Third Ring Road—the East Yi people were very fond of bathing, and he was no exception. The place was called "Heaven on Earth," and the service and quality were top-notch.

That day, after enjoying a sauna and a massage, Park left feeling refreshed. Shortly after getting into his car and having the driver pull away, he received a call from an unknown number. The driver was a local hire and didn't understand the Yi language, so Park hesitated but answered.

"President Park, this is Kim Sung-taek. I’m not having a good time under that woman Che Lizi’s command lately, and I have a big business deal I want to discuss with you."

Park frowned. Kim Sung-taek? Who was that? Right! That traitor who had defected with Che Lizi a year and a half ago! What could a traitor possibly have to talk about? Park was about to scold him, but then he thought that a snob like that must have discovered some secret of Gu Cheng’s and was trying to sell information to both sides. It was better to keep him steady for now.

However, what Kim Sung-taek said next made his soul leave his body. Before he could process it, the car was intercepted. He didn't know the call had been recorded.

"You are under arrest! You are suspected of instigating intentional injury causing serious harm, among other matters under investigation. Come with us!"

A group of plainclothes officers acted swiftly and took Park Young-kwan away.

On the same day, in Qiantang, Du Ming had spent a grueling half-month under police control. He had completely given up resistance. The night he was sprayed by a fire hydrant in sub-zero temperatures had left him severely ill and made him realize the reality of his situation.

The guard looked at him coldly. "Time to go. How much evidence you’ve gathered about your contacts with Park Young-kwan, and what you choose to say, depends on your performance. If you want a suspended sentence or parole, this is your last chance!"

"Thank you, officer, I know what to do."

Du Ming left the dark room, and a car was waiting to take him to his destination. However, he saw a Mercedes S500 parked nearby, and a big shot whom he had no right to meet in person had come to see him.

The man was handsome, young, and full of charisma. Without a doubt, it was Gu Cheng, whom everyone recognized from television. On screen, Gu Cheng played the sunny, handsome Hanazawa Rui. But the Gu Cheng before him now had a chillingly cold expression; he was certain none of his fans had ever seen such a look on his face.

"Do you know that your delayed confession almost cost me a capable subordinate? So, what you suffered that day was deserved. But I know that every debt has a debtor; the incident that night was Kim Sung-taek’s doing, and I can let bygones be bygones. As long as you bite Park Young-kwan to the bone, I can give you a chance to pledge your loyalty to me—you should cherish this. Kim Sung-taek wants to beg for mercy, but I won’t give him that chance. Even if he only gets seven years for his combined crimes, I have the confidence to make sure he has a miserable time inside."

Du Ming’s legs went weak. "I know what to do, thank you, President Gu, for giving me a chance to start over."

...

Several days later, after Park Young-kwan was investigated for "instigating intentional injury," he was slapped with three additional charges: "copyright infringement," "infringement of trade secrets," and "illegal business operations." Even if he managed to escape the charge of instigating injury, the latter three were supported by mountains of ironclad evidence; there was no way out.

The illegal proceeds he hadn't yet managed to transfer were all seized by the state. Aside from a small portion that could be returned to Legend Entertainment as the "aggrieved party," the rest was naturally confiscated by the authorities. Gu Cheng wasn't foolish enough to fight for every penny; to keep the officials motivated, some of the proceeds had to be left for the system.

After Park Young-kwan was finished, Zhou Hongyi was stunned by the news in Beijing, left speechless. Fortunately, he was hidden deeper than Park; the private server game wasn't developed by him, nor did he provide the technical maintenance. He had only shared his usual "distributor channels" of equipment-stealing gangs with Park. He himself had been isolated through white gloves.

"Damn it, I didn't expect that old dog Park to have been flagged by Gu Cheng so long ago. What a pig of a teammate! I must have been blind to partner with this guy!"

But having to bleed out and give up some of his ill-gotten gains was inevitable. His reputation at 3722 and his standing in the industry would suffer a devastating blow. Even if the law couldn't find evidence to sanction him, those in the circle would know what happened, and Mr. Zhou’s commercial credibility would be ruined. Even without Gu Cheng, he would have eventually become a troublemaker who offended everyone in the industry years later; Gu Cheng just accelerated the process. From now on, he would only be able to cash out and become an angel investor.

Unreconciled, Zhou Hongyi called his core confidant, Shi Hong, who had always been the one to step forward for him and maintain single-line contact.

"Little Shi, it’s been four years, hasn't it? How have I treated you?"

"Boss, you’ve been great to me. In any other internet company, they wouldn't let someone who only understands technology and not management rise as high as I have."

"I’ve prepared 40 million to distribute among the brothers. You’ll have to take the fall for the private server brokerage work and the sales of the 'Grey Pigeon' botnet business. I’ll give your parents 5 million. It’s not a big deal; you’ll be out in three years."

"Understood, boss. Don't worry. They won't dare use torture for economic crimes. I will never spill on you."

The next day, Shi Hong was taken away. Zhou Hongyi, feeling disheartened and scouring the net profits of the last two years, prepared to retreat from 3722, the place that had brought him such sorrow. Regardless of everything, old Zhou’s ability to win over and command technical geeks was second to none among the industry titans. The loyalty of pure technical geeks—who lacked social skills—to Zhou was something that left his peers in awe.

An era of grievances had come to an end.