Hearing the praise, Jiang Cheng didn't hypocritically deny it like others might. Instead, he admitted frankly, "Yeah, it's alright. Better than some, worse than others."
Seeing Jiang Cheng continue to drink his soy milk unhurriedly,
Lei Jun suddenly seemed to remember something important.
"Oh, look at my memory. I was so busy chatting with you that I don't even know your name yet." As he spoke, he put on a look of sudden realization, as if he truly had just realized the issue.
"My surname is Jiang, and my given name is Cheng."
It had to be said, Lei Jun's acting was excellent.
Even Jiang Cheng didn't notice that he had recognized him long ago.
After all, Jiang Cheng had little interaction with him.
Rice hadn't reported any financial difficulties either, so there was no reason for him to approach Jiang Cheng to seek investment.
When he heard the name "Jiang Cheng," his expression suddenly became surprised, even carrying a hint of disbelief. He said, "Jiang Cheng?? So you're the boss of Xingchen Investment??"
Facing Lei Jun's surprise, although Jiang Cheng was somewhat taken aback inwardly, he maintained his composure on the surface and said with a smile, "Since President Lei has figured it out, I won't pretend anymore. It's an honor to have breakfast with President Lei at the morning market."
"Oh, I should be the one saying that!" Lei Jun waved his hands hurriedly and subconsciously rubbed them together, his tone full of emotion. "Looking at your age, you should still be in university, right? Back when I was in university, I was still worrying about how to save money to buy a computer." Lei Jun said with a smile, a hint of reminiscence for his youth in his eyes. "Life back then was truly simple and fulfilling, working hard every day for some small goals."
He continued, "Unlike you, who is already so outstanding in the investment field at such a young age, making investments flourish. It's truly admirable! I wasn't nearly as capable as you back then."
Although many physical industry entrepreneurs held a hint of mockery or even disdain for Lei Jun's model,
from Jiang Cheng's personal perspective,
he felt that Rice's ability to succeed was driven by the era, and of course, his own skill.
This sort of thing was just like an Internet Celebrity.
In the internet era, whoever can market can make money.
These people are indeed jumping around all over the internet.
You might think they're embarrassing, but they really are making money.
"It's all good luck. I just happened to step on the right trends, and the companies I invested in were also capable. It's not really much of a skill."
Jiang Cheng's words sounded casual.
But his tone didn't have the slightest hint of deliberate humility.
It was a complete "making money is just a side effect" humblebrag.
Lei Jun was amused and burst out laughing.
In his view, young people should have this kind of uncompromising drive; only with drive can one achieve great things.
Lei Jun pointed at him, his admiration unconcealed. "Your luck is something others couldn't even pray for. I looked into Xingchen before. Your eye for investment at Xingchen Investment is truly sharp. You've taken heavy positions in Zhang Yiming's TikTok and Huang Zheng's Pinduoduo, and you didn't even miss a steady platform like Sina. Looking at industry data recently, Pinduoduo's valuation is heading toward 12.4 billion USD after its Series D funding. That growth rate is practically like a rocket."
After finishing, he paused and counted on his fingers, adding, "Then there's TAL Education. Parents in China value education so much now. They're expanding offline and online simultaneously, and student enrollment is growing rapidly. Being able to position yourself in this area early shows great foresight. Also, JD Logistics received a 2.5 billion USD investment last year and became a unicorn. I heard you guys had a hand in that too? E-commerce nowadays is all about logistics. That was a very precise move."
Platforms like TikTok, Pinduoduo, Sina, and Xiong Mao Live were all decided by him and handled by Chen Xueer.
But TAL Education and JD Logistics were the work of Chen Xueer and Zhao Linger.
Jiang Cheng hadn't actually thought deeply about the logistics track before.
But with Lei Jun mentioning it, Jiang Cheng also felt that these two investments were indeed quite accurate.
"Well, our investment company has also caught a good era. With new directions on the internet, it's easy to make money no matter what you invest in."
Xu Yan hadn't expected that those platforms she only heard about on her phone were actually related to Jiang Cheng.
It was just that the topics they discussed were too high-end, involving units of hundreds of millions at every turn.
She couldn't join the conversation, so she simply held her cup of soy milk and took small sips.
The two of them chatted a bit more amidst the lively atmosphere of the morning market, ranging from university life to industry trends, and the atmosphere became increasingly warm.
Finally, Lei Jun brought the topic back to the main point, his eyes filled with expectation. "Seriously, Xingchen has invested in so many new forces on the trend, and your vision is extremely unique. In your opinion, what do you think of our Rice? Is it a potential target worth more than a couple of looks from you?"
In industry exchanges, many senior figures were full of praise for Xingchen Investment.
Their eye for projects was startlingly accurate.
Although he hadn't figured out Jiang Cheng's specific background, being able to talk to someone so highly regarded by people in the circle—
even if it was just a few more words of contact, maybe he could learn something from him, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for Rice's future development.
Jiang Cheng smiled and said honestly, "President Lei, to be honest, I don't know Rice Group very well, but I do know that Rice is now considered a top leader in the domestic market."
Lei Jun glanced at Jiang Cheng's iPhone and spoke, "Domestically, we still can't compare to Huawei and Apple. Like you just said, we're better than some but worse than others."