Xiao Ma didn't answer right away.
After thinking it through, he nodded silently.
He'd be back to Haifeng's gaming phone project for now.
But part of him still wanted more. If Penguin was going to be involved, he tried to lead, not follow.
He asked tentatively:
"How would you structure the partnership if we start a new phone company?"
Haifeng could tell he had his attention.
"You bring the ecosystem and user base. I'll handle the tech."
Xiao Ma raised an eyebrow.
"And who gets final say?"
"That depends on the investment split," Haifeng said smoothly. "I'll contribute the tech through the CS Research Lab. CS Technologies will only put in two billion in capital. The rest is up to you—how much capital and traffic can Penguin commit?"
That made Xiao Ma pause.
He hadn't expected the lab to hold the IP, not the company.
"Wait... all your tech comes from the CS Research Lab? Not CS Tech itself?"
Haifeng nodded.
"Every system, every patent we use—it's licensed from the lab."
Xiao Ma was stunned.
He'd always assumed the lab was just a CS division, not its independent engine. He'd thought CS's success came from a stroke of luck during a tech pivot, not from long-term planning. Now? It was clear. Haifeng had future-proofed the company from day one.
Tech isn't something you can buy with money. But money? That could be raised. Easily.
For the first time, Xiao Ma felt a little outmaneuvered.
Before he could respond, there was a knock at the door.
Secretary Xiao Ai stepped in.
"Mr. Lu, Mr. Ma from Alibaba is here."
Haifeng's expression didn't change, but his eyes flicked to Xiao Ma.
Xiao Ma froze mid-thought.
He hadn't expected Old Ma to show up at this exact moment.
The two of them rarely crossed paths in person, and there was always a subtle tension between them.
They weren't enemies, but not allies either.
Xiao Ma stood up.
"President Lu, I just remembered something urgent back in Shenshi. I'll give your proposal serious thought—please give me a few days."
He didn't want to run into Old Ma here.
Haifeng nodded.
"Of course. But remember, Mr. Ma—opportunities don't always wait."
Xiao Ma nodded, then left quickly with his team.
A few minutes later, Haifeng walked into another meeting room.
"Mr. Ma, what brings you here instead of running things at Alibaba?"
Old Ma chuckled.
"I must've come at the wrong time. Looks like Little Ma was leaving."
Haifeng gave him a look. He wasn't buying the innocent act. Old Ma never came unless he needed something.
Sure enough, Old Ma got straight to the point:
"We'd like to rent one of your CS Cloud servers. Just for a day."
Haifeng blinked.
"Rent our cloud?"
Old Ma's engineer stepped forward with a wry smile.
"It's Singles' Day. The traffic is going to overwhelm our system. We need a fallback—or we crash."
It was an ironic twist.
Singles' Day was supposed to be Alibaba Cloud's significant flex—a showcase of load-bearing strength.
But the system wasn't ready. Not this year.
So now, they were coming to CS—the competitor—for help.
Haifeng hadn't paid much attention to the data center side of CS in a while. That division had long been in Li Jun's hands. Quiet, efficient, growing faster than most noticed.
But now? CS Cloud was owning the field.
Alibaba had about 15% market share in China's cloud space. CS Cloud had reached 35%, and that was just hybrid solutions. In private cloud deployments? CS owned 80% of the field.
Their tech wasn't just competitive. It was world-class.
Old Ma bowed slightly.
"Thank you for this. I won't forget it. If you ever need anything from me, say the word."
Haifeng studied him, then nodded.
"We'll make it work. I'll have Li Jun coordinate the backend."
Old Ma smiled gratefully and left.
As soon as he did, Haifeng turned to his next priority.
He headed straight for the Audi Motors plant. Zhao Jianhua met him at the door, face grim.
"President Lu, the foreign brands are stirring up trouble again."
Haifeng narrowed his eyes.
"What now? Didn't they learn their lesson the last time?"
Zhao handed him a letter.
It was an invitation to a global auto industry event: the World Collision Safety Test Exchange.
Polite on the surface. But Haifeng could see it clearly:
They wanted a public crash test. And they wanted Audi to fail.