Chapter 157: Keeping the Appointment

Sun Tan had always considered himself a wolf hiding in the shadows compared to Li Mu and 3321. Li Mu might have heard of him, but he surely had no idea that Sun Tan had long harbored hostility toward him. Therefore, Sun Tan felt that he could have a face-to-face chat with Li Mu to see if he was willing to sell 3321. Money was no object; several hundred thousand, or even a million yuan, wouldn't be a problem at all.

Sun Tan possessed a certain degree of political acumen. He knew that 3321 was of great significance, and he knew that if he explained the matter clearly to his family, they would undoubtedly give him sufficient support. If a few hundred thousand wasn't enough, they would offer a million; if a million wasn't enough, they would offer several million. In short, 3321 had to be secured. Once this asset was truly in his pocket, combined with the operations of himself and his family, 3321 would undoubtedly bring tremendous help to his future.

Once he changed his perspective, Sun Tan suddenly felt enlightened. Since he couldn't stop 3321 from taking off, buying it out was countless times better than his own Student Assistance Program.

Wu Shuai held a strong grudge against Li Mu. Seeing that Sun Tan had the intention to buy 3321, he chimed in from the side to remind him, "Brother Tan, if Li Mu is willing to sell, you cannot let him off the hook after acquiring 3321. As long as this kid is at Renmin University, 3321 will bear his stamp."

Sun Tan nodded. "That goes without saying. Once 3321 is bought, he won't have anything else to rely on."

"And what if he isn't willing to sell?"

Wu Shuai's question made Sun Tan furrow his brow.

If Li Mu was unwilling to sell, the situation would become extremely troublesome. He couldn't stop it, couldn't sabotage it, and couldn't buy it. If it really came to that, in order to ensure that next year's selection for the Top Ten College Students would not be affected, he would have no choice but to have his family step in. No matter what, he would have to chase Li Mu out of Renmin University first.

Seeing that Sun Tan remained silent for a long time, Wu Shuai asked again, "Brother Tan, when do you plan to talk to him?"

"Tomorrow."

***

Li Mu did not expect that Sun Tan would take the initiative to contact him and even invite him to dinner. When he received Sun Tan's call at noon, he was resting in his dorm. Sun Tan introduced himself over the phone and then said with utmost sincerity that he wanted to represent the Student Union and invite Li Mu to a meal.

Not only was Sun Tan's tone sincere, but his attitude was also extremely friendly. Li Mu roughly guessed his true purpose for pulling this stunt: he must have realized he couldn't stop 3321, so he wanted to change tactics and worm his way in to get a slice of the pie.

However, Yu Xingjie had already dug up Sun Tan's conspiracy against him from Zhang Qing. Sun Tan thought Li Mu was still kept completely in the dark, unaware that Li Mu had already been fully on guard against him.

After a brief moment of thought, Li Mu did not refuse Sun Tan's invitation. Since Sun Tan thought he knew nothing, he would simply pretend to be completely oblivious and meet him to see what scheme he was hatching. Furthermore, from Sun Tan's proactive attitude of goodwill, Li Mu conceived a method to defeat them one by one. Wasn't Sun Tan coveting his 3321? Fine, then they could chat about Wu Shuai along the way.

Thus, at six o'clock in the afternoon, Li Mu went alone to a restaurant outside the campus. In a private dining room, he met the long-waiting Sun Tan.

Sun Tan did not bring Wu Shuai along because Wu Shuai had already made things difficult for Li Mu's dormmates several times, which was equivalent to pushing himself into the open and standing directly in opposition to Li Mu. Now that Sun Tan was wholeheartedly focused on obtaining Li Mu's 3321, he naturally could not let Wu Shuai affect his negotiations with Li Mu.

When the two met, Sun Tan shook hands with Li Mu with a warm smile and said, "Junior Li Mu, your reputation has been resounding like thunder lately. I've been wanting to meet you and get to know you these past couple of days, but I just couldn't spare the time."

Li Mu smiled faintly. "You're too kind. I don't have any reputation at school. If we're talking about reputation, yours is much bigger than mine, Senior."

Sun Tan waved his hand and laughed, "What reputation do I have? I've simply stayed at the school a little longer, that's all."

Li Mu wasn't very interested in exchanging such uninteresting pleasantries with Sun Tan, so he asked, "Did you have something specific in mind when you asked to see me today, Senior?"

Sun Tan smiled. "Li Mu, let's not talk about business first; let's eat. How can we chat about business before the food is served and the drinks are poured, right?"

Li Mu said, "I'm a straightforward person. If you have something to tell me, Senior, just spit it out. Otherwise, it will keep lingering in my mind, and I won't even be able to enjoy this meal."

Sun Tan hesitated for a moment, then took the opportunity to yield gracefully and said, "Alright, since you asked, I'll tell you."

After a brief pause, Sun Tan took a sip of tea and said, "I've been keeping an eye on 3321, which you've been working on lately. To be honest, I deeply admire the concept behind 3321."

Li Mu smiled and said, "3321 is just something I put together for fun. I didn't expect you to be paying attention to it as well, Senior."

Sun Tan nodded and said, "The Student Union's core mission is to serve the interests of the students. A great project like 3321, which benefits all students in Beijing, is naturally something we pay even closer attention to."

Li Mu then said with a humble expression, "It's an honor that Student Union leaders like you are paying attention to this little project of mine. I'll have to ask you to look after 3321 in the future, Senior."

Sun Tan felt a slight uneuthered discord in his heart. Li Mu always held something back when he spoke. Although very polite, there was also a strong sense of distance. Even though he, the Vice President of the Student Union, was treating him to dinner, Li Mu didn't seem surprised at all, maintaining a completely calm and composed demeanor.

After thinking for a moment, Sun Tan decided to stop beating around the bush with Li Mu and got straight to the point. "Li Mu, to be frank, the main reason I invited you to dinner today is that I have a matter I'd like to discuss with you."

Li Mu nodded. "Go ahead."

With a serious and earnest expression, Sun Tan said, "Our Student Union is also running a project called the Student Assistance Program. The concept of this project is identical to 3321—it also aims to help more students in difficulty. However, the Student Assistance Program has limited strength, and 3321 only handles the campus tutoring business, leaving it isolated as well. Therefore, I'd like to personally invest funds to acquire 3321 from you, bundle it with the Student Assistance Program, and have the Student Union run them together."

Li Mu frowned, thinking to himself: *You really have the nerve to open your mouth. I thought you just wanted to stick your foot in and get a slice of the pie, but you actually want a full buyout straight away? Isn't your appetite a bit too greedy?*

Seeing that Li Mu remained silent, Sun Tan asked probingly, "What? Are you unwilling to sell, or do you have some other concerns?"

Li Mu smiled awkwardly. Instead of answering Sun Tan's question, he countered with one of his own: "You said you want to buy 3321, Senior, but I wonder how much you're planning to offer?"

After brief consideration, Sun Tan named a figure: "Twenty thousand yuan. What do you think?"

Li Mu burst out laughing, gently shaking his head with a helpless expression, yet he didn't say a single word.

Sun Tan felt somewhat displeased. "Li Mu, if you think the price is too low, you can name your own price. Money is not an issue."

Li Mu nodded. He put away his smile and asked Sun Tan very seriously, "Senior, have you ever been involved in website development?"

Sun Tan frowned. "No, but isn't it just a matter of those few things? Register a domain name, rent some server space or whatever, and then build a website."

Li Mu smiled and said, "What you're talking about is the most garbage, lowest-tier webpage, where you can only put a few pictures, a couple of external links, and maybe one or two articles at most. For that kind of website, you can just buy someone else's ready-made source code. But do you have any idea how much effort goes into developing 3321?"

Sun Tan asked, "How much effort? Can the development of this website possibly cost more than ten thousand yuan?"

Li Mu let out a cold laugh. "The website's layout design requires a graphic artist to design the homepage, all secondary pages, and tertiary pages, and then slice the images piece by piece. And that's just the design aspect. On top of that, because there are no similar websites out there, the front-end needs a technical team to code it line by line, and the technical management and data statistics back-end also need to be written completely from scratch. Beyond that, there is a student user back-end and a parent user back-end. Once the front-end and back-end are all developed, there's a whole mess of other things to do, such as matching logic, bidding functions, and settlement systems. You build it, you test it; after testing, you modify it; after modifying, you test it again, repeating over and over... So, when you add all of this up, the development cost alone exceeds your offer. Ten thousand yuan isn't even scratching the surface."

Sun Tan didn't understand the internet, but Li Mu wasn't just spouting nonsense. Everything about 3321 started from scratch, with no available templates or codes. The initial framework was built by his own hands, and all subsequent development requirements and logic were written by him before being handed over to Kong Lingyu and his team to execute. Because there were numerous functional requirements, back-end demands, and complex logic, if Li Mu hadn't laid everything out in advance, even if Kong Lingyu led his team to develop it, it would have taken at least several months. During that time, they would have had to constantly write code, test, modify, re-test, and re-modify. If their luck was bad, they might not have even finished it in half a year.

Therefore, anyone who truly understood the internet only needed to take a glance at the 3321 website, test its two open back-ends, logic, and data matching, to know just how heavy its gold content was.

Sun Tan listened in a daze. He didn't understand many of the things Li Mu said, nor did he know if Li Mu was trying to fool him, but it still sounded somewhat reasonable.

So, Sun Tan asked Li Mu again, "Then just name a price."

Li Mu smiled faintly and said with a hint of embarrassment, "Senior, I have no intention of selling 3321."

Anxiety and anger surged within Sun Tan. *If you have no intention of selling, what the hell is the point of babbling so much to me? Are you showing off that you understand this better than me?*

Yet, hardening his heart, he blurted out a bold offer: "How about this: half a million!"

Li Mu still shook his head. "To be honest, I wouldn't sell it for five million."

*Five million?* Sun Tan instantly flew into a rage and threatened, "Li Mu, you'd better know when to quit while you're ahead. A crappy website, and you dare to quote me five million? Isn't that a bit too arrogant?"

Li Mu smiled faintly and retorted, "Senior, am I even quoting you a price? Even if you put five million right in front of me right now, I would still clearly tell you that I will not sell 3321."

Sun Tan's expression instantly turned ice cold. *Is this the moment we tear off our masks and go to war?*

Unexpectedly, Li Mu changed the subject at that exact moment and said, "However, I can consider merging 3321 into the Student Union, provided I have a few conditions."

A glimmer of hope instantly reignited deep within Sun Tan's heart, and he pressed Li Mu, "What conditions? Speak."

With a resolute expression, Li Mu stated, "First, I want to join the Student Union, and right off the bat, I must be the head of one of its subordinate departments. Second, there is a bastard in your Student Union named Wu Shuai who has constantly gone out of his way to give me and my dormmates a hard time. I want him kicked out of the Student Union. If you can achieve these two things, I can incorporate 3321 into a company and merge it into the Student Union under the pretext of college student entrepreneurship, giving you a 30% stake."