"Good day, Eldest Miss!"
The tsunami-like chorus of greetings pounded against Qiu Ciyun's eardrums. The fanatical expressions on the faces of the thousands of employees below the stage further shattered his understanding of this company.
It was his first time seeing such a divided company.
Yet, it was precisely such a company, which exuded an underworld vibe in every aspect, whose boss was working so hard to develop microchips.
Was this the patriotic sentiment held by a boss with an underworld background?
Qiu Ciyun now knew that the title Eldest Miss was a unique culture within the Wanlong Syndicate. Liu Yutong herself wasn't actually the eldest daughter of some prestigious family; it was just what everyone was accustomed to calling her.
Of course, one could also hear some subtle differences in these titles.
Normally, only the men in black suits would call her that, even viewing it as an honor to address their boss this way. Meanwhile, the other ordinary employees used more standard titles, similar to how he addressed her.
Liu Yutong merely raised her hand slightly, and the crowd below instantly fell silent. You could hear a pin drop.
Then, she took the microphone handed to her by Yun Cheng and spoke.
"Brothers and sisters, thank you for your hard work!"
There were no long-winded opening remarks, no superficial words of gratitude. It was incredibly direct and straightforward. Yet, this simple sentence unconsciously made everyone in the audience straighten their backs a little more.
"It is a new year again. The place we are standing on right now is the Wanlong Syndicate Group headquarters that we are currently building. I feel deeply honored and incredibly lucky that the Wanlong Syndicate Group has grown from nothing to something, gathering so many brothers and sisters together on this land."
"In 2007, I had just graduated from high school. At that time, Yun Cheng, Ma Da, and I founded the Wanlong Syndicate and opened our first restaurant, Yuyuefang. Now, Yuyuefang insists on a boutique route, with over twenty branches including those in Pearl City, and an annual revenue exceeding one hundred million. Later, we opened our first supermarket, Wanlong Supermarket, defeated all competitors in Pearl City, and swallowed up Mingcheng Supermarket, which had been competing against us. By the end of 2007, the valuation of the industries under the Wanlong Syndicate was nearly three billion."
"In 2008, our first Wanlong Shopping Plaza officially opened, and we are accelerating our expansion in multiple cities. It is estimated that by the second half of this year, at least five Wanlong Plazas will open one after another. Huangquan Internet Cafe has opened dozens of branches, and Longyin milk tea shops have spread all over the streets and alleys of Pearl City. Our internet project, Wanhui Select, has completed multiple rounds of financing, and its current valuation exceeds seven billion. Weibo, from its inception to now, in just a few months, has surpassed 45 million users. At the same time, we have also invested in key high-tech projects like Longxin..."
"A year and a half feels like a very long time to me. Because back then, I never expected us to develop to the scale we are at today. Now, I can tell all the brothers and sisters of the Wanlong Syndicate, as well as every friend present today, that according to the latest round of professional evaluation, the overall valuation of the Wanlong Syndicate Group has broken through the twenty billion mark!"
Boom!
The crowd instantly exploded into an uproar, gasps of amazement erupting all around!
Twenty billion!
From zero to twenty billion, the Wanlong Syndicate only took a short year and a half!
What did this mean?
It meant that all of them were part of this rapidly expanding business empire. It meant that the restricted shares in their hands and the platform they were on were rising in value.
Especially for the earliest batch of core members of the Wanlong Syndicate.
The 100,000 restricted shares they had bought for 100,000 yuan back then were now worth over a million. Simply because they had followed the right Eldest Miss, in just over a year, these street thugs who used to hustle in society, sometimes so poor they had to pick up cigarette butts while driving beat-up vans, had become millionaires in the blink of an eye.
In this day and age, being a millionaire carried a lot of weight. Even a decade later, it would still hold high value, because their restricted shares could be cashed out with the company at any time.
There was an even more shocking figure: the number of people in the entire Wanlong Syndicate Group with a net worth of over a million had already exceeded four digits.
As the company grew larger and wealthier, they too became wealthier. This was the early wealthy leading the later wealthy—no, it should be said that they truly achieved sharing blessings together.
It was also Qiu Ciyun's first time hearing Liu Yutong's entrepreneurial journey so completely, and he was deeply shaken.
He had seen many successful business owners, but he had never seen a boss who built a multi-billion empire from scratch at such a young age.
At first, he also thought Liu Yutong was the eldest daughter of some wealthy family, supported by her family's money to start a business. He didn't expect her to have started entirely from scratch. Of course, the process of building this empire might have been a little shady.
But it was undeniable that for her to lead the Wanlong Syndicate to its current scale at such a young age, her abilities were truly outstanding. The most crucial point was that the industries under her umbrella were blossoming everywhere, each with its own unique characteristics.
He had eaten at Yuyuefang, and the dishes there made it absolutely one of the most amazing restaurants he had ever visited. The small fish potstickers, in particular, left a deep impression on him.
The Weibo team led by President Zhang, who sat next to him, had created a miracle of surpassing 45 million users just a few months after going online, with a valuation of at least several billion.
There were also supermarkets, shopping plazas, milk tea shops... The Wanlong Syndicate Group seemed to succeed in whatever it did, and its momentum was incredibly fierce!
And the creator of all this, including the boss behind the Longxin project he was currently responsible for, was actually the same person: a young college sophomore who had just turned twenty.
Qiu Ciyun couldn't help but wonder what he was doing at the age of twenty. He was probably still studying desperately for a scholarship, or doing odd jobs for his advisor in the lab...
And even then, he was already considered a genius.
Then look at Liu Yutong.
Sigh, comparing oneself to others really just brings pure frustration...
On stage, Liu Yutong was still speaking.
"Many people say that the annual meeting is a time to summarize the achievements of the year, but I think it should be more of a time for sharing. The Wanlong Syndicate Group will never mistreat its own people!"
She turned her head and nodded to Ma Da.
Ma Da understood, picked up his walkie-talkie, and whispered a few words.
The next moment, there was a commotion at the entrance of the venue, and everyone looked over curiously.
They saw over a dozen young men in black suits, in groups of two, pushing heavy carts covered with red cloth into the venue.
There were a full ten of these carts in total.
The carts were neatly lined up in the open space in front of the stage. Beneath the red cloths were bulging outlines that made people's hearts race.
Liu Yutong walked to the edge of the stage, looked at the thousands of pairs of eyes below, and said, "Everyone has worked hard over the past year. With the Spring Festival approaching, I won't spout any empty words..."
She waved her arm, pointing to the carts covered in red cloth. "Here is one hundred million in cash, and today, it belongs to every official employee of the Wanlong Syndicate!"
"One hundred million! In cash!"
"Holy crap!"
"Is this for real?!"
"........."
The crowd below the stage went absolutely wild!
Many people stood on their tiptoes and craned their necks, desperate to catch a glimpse of what lay hidden beneath the red cloth.
Ma Da stepped forward alongside a few core members. They grabbed a corner of the red cloth draped over the first cart and yanked it off with a forceful pull!
Swoosh!
A dazzling sea of red, still carrying the fresh scent of printing ink, instantly filled everyone's vision.
It was neatly stacked hundred-yuan bills, arranged like bricks, pile after pile, layer upon layer, completely filling the entire cart.
The visual impact was simply unparalleled!
Immediately after, the second, the third... the rest of the red cloths were pulled away one by one.
Ten carts, all loaded with mountains of cash.
At this very moment, the sheer concept of one hundred million was completely brought to life!
