"Welcome to PARIS."
The young clerk behind the counter wore a small red cap and a dark red uniform. She had the kind of features that suggested Mexican heritage, and the second Bruce stepped inside, she greeted him with practiced politeness.
Bruce gave her a quick glance, then let his eyes move across the store.
First the food station.
A heated roller packed with sausages. A hot case holding burgers, chicken wraps, and hand pies. Beverage machines stocked with juice, milk, and coffee. A freezer dedicated to Haagen-Dazs.
Then the rest.
The retail shelves. The fresh section. The produce display.
Everything was orderly. Clean. Better designed than a standard neighborhood convenience store, and noticeably more modern too.
Bruce nodded slowly, clearly pleased.
A moment later, Catherine Lincoln walked over.
"So?" she said as she took the seat beside him. "Did I justify your faith in me?"
She had heard from one of the employees that a strange customer had come in and spent several minutes quietly inspecting the store like an auditor.
Bruce smiled and gestured toward the stool next to him.
"Sit. Let's talk."
Once they were seated, an alert employee brought over two coffees without being asked.
Bruce thanked her, then turned back to Catherine.
"I have to say, Catherine, bringing you in to run Guo's was exactly the right move."
That made her smile, but only after she let out a little of the tension she had clearly been holding.
Over the past few months, Bruce had never once come by in person to inspect the stores. But the design plans she kept sending him had been rejected over and over, at least five or six times. They had gone through multiple rounds of revisions before landing on what now stood in front of them.
To be fair, Bruce had also accepted some of her ideas.
One of the biggest was the name.
Instead of the flat, old-fashioned "Guo Neighborhood Store," the chain would carry a cleaner, more modern identity: PARIS.
Bruce took a sip of coffee.
"How's business?"
"Pretty good," Catherine said. "Between the farms, logistics, food service, and retail, total monthly revenue is just under $2.6 million."
Then she looked at him directly.
"But Bruce, I've got to say this again. I don't object to your farm acquisition strategy. I understand that part. What I still don't understand is why we insist on buying the properties under the PARIS stores. It's choking cash flow, and our cash flow wasn't exactly abundant to begin with."
Bruce answered calmly.
"And owning the property saves us rent."
Catherine was ready for that.
"Yes, but if we weren't tying up so much money in real estate, we could be opening more locations instead of sitting here with fewer than thirty stores."
She was not wrong.
Bruce knew exactly why she kept pressing the issue.
"We buy the property under PARIS locations in mid-tier and upper-tier neighborhoods in major cities," he said after thinking it through. "Elsewhere, we lease."
Catherine watched him for a second, then nodded.
She was not being difficult for the sake of it. She understood perfectly well that owning the real estate could cut at least fifteen to twenty percent out of the long-term cost base. But from her perspective, speed mattered more. She wanted scale first, revenue next, and eventually an IPO to fund the rest. That was how most American companies thought.
Bruce's approach was the opposite.
He wanted to build steadily now and expand aggressively later.
Still, he had compromised, and that mattered.
"Fine," she said.
Bruce could not tell her the real reason.
He knew the future. He knew the real estate under those stores would appreciate hard over the next five years. But since he could not say that out loud without sounding unhinged, compromise was the only rational move. He would give up the lower-upside properties and keep the strategy focused on the locations that mattered most.
Catherine took another sip of coffee.
"Then can I at least use the group's real estate as collateral for loans?"
Bruce shook his head.
"Not yet."
She frowned.
"Why not?"
He met her eyes.
"I'll explain later. But for now, no."
The real answer was simple.
Loan rates were still too high for his taste. After 9/11, the Federal Reserve would cut rates to levels the market had never seen before. Base rates would go to one percent, discount rates even lower. That would be the time to borrow hard.
But again, that was not something he could explain.
After a short pause, Bruce added, "To support the group's development, I'll wire you another ten million dollars every month. For where Guo Commercial Group is right now, that should be enough to keep growth moving for the next year or two."
Catherine looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"So the writing business really is paying that well."
Bruce smiled, but did not answer directly.
Instead, he stood.
"Come on. It's almost lunch. I'm buying."
She laughed and stood with him.
"Gladly. On your tab."
She was smart enough not to push the money topic any further.
After lunch, the two of them chatted for a while about ordinary life, and then Bruce drove over to Google.
Since coming back from Los Angeles, he had actually spent more time here than at home, and more time here than at LinkedIn.
As he walked through the office, employees greeted him from all sides.
"Bruce."
"Mr. Guo."
"Good afternoon."
He answered them one by one with an easy smile.
By now, after months of work, he had already begun to establish real authority inside Google.
Once he reached his office, he opened the door, set his briefcase on the sofa, sat down, and pulled up his email.
The moment he saw the message pinned at the top, something clicked in his head.
He reached for the phone, paused, then changed his mind. Instead, he stood, walked out, and headed straight for Larry Page's office.
He knocked.
After getting the go-ahead, he pushed the door open and stepped inside.
To his surprise, Sergey Brin was already there.
"Bruce," Larry said.
"Good," Bruce replied. "Saves me the trouble of finding you one at a time."
Larry smiled and waved him in.
"Come sit."
Once Bruce took a seat, Larry asked, "What's up?"
"I wanted to check on the progress of Google Encyclopedia."
Sergey answered first.
"We're still building it out. But it's a massive project, and hiring editors takes time. It's going to be a while before we're happy with it."
Bruce nodded.
"An encyclopedia is never really finished. It's a long game. Don't rush it."
Then he looked between the two of them.
"What were you talking about before I came in?"
Larry answered.
"The news display idea you gave us. We were thinking that in addition to putting ten fixed trending stories on the right side of search results, we could also use the lower section of the homepage. That page gets the most traffic in the whole company. And later, if the timing is right, we could use that space for ads too."
Bruce shook his head almost immediately.
"The idea is good, but not yet."
Larry and Sergey exchanged a look, but neither of them pushed back right away.
By now, both men had seen enough to trust Bruce's instincts in how Google should be run. The growth in search usage had been the strongest argument in his favor.
Bruce continued.
"Right now, even with Yahoo traffic feeding us, Google is only just becoming the biggest search engine in the world. Our position still isn't secure. At this stage, the priority is user experience.
"When Google becomes the first search choice for more than eighty percent of internet users worldwide, then we can start thinking seriously about how to maximize value without damaging the product."
Both men thought about that for a moment, then nodded.
Larry smiled.
"Bruce, your arguments are always annoyingly persuasive."
Sergey looked just as convinced.
Bruce laughed.
"If you two keep flattering me like this, I'm going to turn arrogant."
Then he leaned forward slightly.
"All right, enough of that. Let's talk about Google's international strategy."
That changed the tone in the room instantly.
For Larry and Sergey, this was not a side issue. It was the future of the company.
Bruce spoke clearly.
"For this year, I want us focused on three priority markets: Japan, Germany, and France. All three have strong economies, large internet populations, and they're markets we need."
Neither Larry nor Sergey objected.
Bruce went on.
"In the first half of next year, we move into Spain, Portugal, and then into the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking markets in Latin America, especially Mexico. In the second half, we expand across the rest of Europe.
"After that, East Asia. Especially China."
He gave the last two words a little extra weight, and something reflective flickered briefly through his eyes.
Larry spoke first.
"Bruce, you're the CEO. Google's direction is yours to set. We're with you."
Sergey nodded too.
"We trust you."
Bruce looked at both of them and said, "The moment we extend Google's network across the world is the moment we stop leaning on Yahoo. When that day comes, Google becomes one of the brightest internet companies on the planet."
Sergey blinked.
"Walk away from Yahoo? Why? Aren't things going well with them?"
Larry could not help stepping in.
"Sergey, once we become a competitor in digital advertising, do you really think Yahoo is going to keep treating us like a partner?"
Sergey blinked again, then nodded.
"Right. Good point."
Compared with Larry, Sergey had never had much instinct for management.
The three of them spent the next stretch of time talking through Google's future in more detail. Once they finished, they broke off and went back to their own work.