Heathrow International Airport, London, United Kingdom 2003.

Outside the passenger exit, a tall white man held a sign in his hand and stared intently at the passengers who came out of the exit, for fear of missing the figure he was unfamiliar with.The weather was not very hot, but the white man's brain was obviously sweating, but he did not care, nor did he dare to take off his thick suit.Passing passengers and pickers occasionally looked back and saw that the sign was not written in English, but a ... or two Chinese characters.

“It’s a Chinese word, which means Two... Horse, do you know what it means?”An Englishman, who was a little more oriental, flaunted his story to his companions.

“I think it’s a Chinese name, isn’t it?”Companion guessed.

"What a strange name."

“Look, here comes the one we’re going to pick up!”

The white man holding the sign looked up at the sign, and then muttered to their background to their background, saying, “There is no culture, this is clearly a Feng word is good!”

“Boss, why do you want to pick up this Chinese Mr. Feng in person, who is your friend?”A small classmate standing next to a white man asked in a low voice.

“No, he’s... well, you take him as the most important partner of our company, and if we lose his support, you and I will lose your jobs.”The white man said.

"It turns out to be so..." The small follower's face showed a solemn color, and the waistboard was unconsciously stabbing, so as to make his image seem more serious.

The white man, Hotby, is the CEO of a Birmingham-based company called House’s Information Technology Investment Company in the United Kingdom.In the registration data of the House of Fox Investment Company, it is stated that the company is a joint stock company, and the equity composition is very complicated, in addition to a small number of shares owned by Hotby himself, there are five companies that hold shares separately.The main business of Fox Investment Corporation is to invest in electronic information companies in the UK and continental Europe, which do not invest much in each company, and seems to be satisfied with a face-to-face opportunity in these companies.

Hotby himself is also a person who prefers to show his face, as a mini-shareholder, but is keen to go to the company he often invests in.Of course, he is not the kind of particularly annoying minority shareholder, he has experience in electronic companies, in many industry companies have friends, so often can help the invested company to find some cooperation opportunities, is a free salesman.

The little hello class with him to pick up at Heathrow was called Dobbins, a young man in his twenties, who was unemployed after graduating from college, and when he gnaw at the old man for a few months, he was recruited into the company by Hotby, with the title of investment adviser.Dobbins is studying finance, for investment is a little bit, he carefully studied the company's investment structure, made a formal report to Hotby, that the company's investment direction should be adjusted, should be invested in those companies with growth potential, rather than most of the current investment in some of the dying enterprises.

Howtby listened patiently to Dobbins, nodded with satisfaction, and added him a hundred euros to his salary, and then there was none.The investment direction of the company should be selected in some companies that are about to go bankrupt, and it is deeply suspected that Holtby is not an investment company, but a garbage collection company.

The boss did not listen to his own opinions, and Dobbins had some frustration, but even if he was relieved.The company is the boss, what does he want to do, take care of his ass?The boss is very kind to the subordinates, the salary is also good, what reason dobbins do not feel comfortable?The whole of Europe's economy has been sluggish these years, unemployment has been rising, and it is good to be able to find a job.

Last night, Hotby suddenly called Dobbins to tell him to dress more formally when he came to work today, saying that he had important partners to see him.Dobbins changed his dress and came to the company to see that the boss, Hotby, was dressed like a dog-like, a well-valued suit, and looked like he was going to church to swear a wedding.Without waiting for Dobbins to ask, Hotby pulled him out of the company and took a rented commercial car straight to the airport.At the airport, Hotby did not know where to turn out such a sign with Chinese characters, holding high to the pick-up gate.

“Hi, hey!Mr. Feng, here it is!”

While Dobbins was speculating about the identity of the guests, another group of passengers stepped out of the airport.Hultby, with a sharp eye, found his goal in the group, and held up the sign higher, and shouted in spite of the public manners, and caused the pickers around him to cast their eyes white.

“It’s Mr. Hotby, isn’t it?”A middle-class man with an oriental face came to this side, and he went straight to Hotby and greeted him with a smile in English, “I am Feng Xiaochen, should we have met eight years ago?”

Holtby had already handed the sign to Dobbins, and he extended two hands to Feng Zhichen, warmly held Feng Zhichen's hand, and replied: "Yes, Mr. Feng's memory is very good, the last time we met was in 1995, and now it is exactly eight years."

Feng Xiaochen smiled, “My memory is not as good as Mr. Holtby.”I saw that side at that time, after eight years, if you don't say hello to me, I really don't recognize you."

Hotby modestly said: "In fact, my memory is very poor, but I have always been concerned about the Chinese news, and often see Mr. Feng's photos in the Chinese news, so I remember Mr. Feng's appearance."However, Mr. Feng looks much younger than those news photos, and I didn't recognize it until then."

Dobbins followed with a smirk, but in his heart he was shocked.Hotby is a very easy-going person, and usually looks very enthusiastic when companies go to meet others, but that enthusiasm is completely equal.At this time, Hortby's face was full of obsessiveness, and Dobbins firmly believed that he would not appear so flattering in front of Hotby, and was Mr. Feng not only the most important partner of the company, but also the reborn parents of Hotby?

Dobbins was right, and for Hotby, Feng Xiaochen was indeed like a reborn parent.When the company that Holtby served went bankrupt, Hotby became an unemployed man, old and small, and had a very difficult life.At this time, a Chinese businessman named Bao Chengming hired him to help collect some technical information in Europe, and gave him a good salary to save him from suffering.

The bigger opportunities come from later.During the Munich International Construction Machinery Exhibition in 1995, Bao Chengming informed Holtby to go to Munich to meet with the Chinese official named Feng Xiaochen.Feng gave Hodgby a task to register an investment company, with several overseas companies controlled by Feng.The main task of the company registered in Hotby is to invest in the European market, mainly to European companies with some technology but also difficult to operate.Feng said he doesn’t care how much the investment can be, as long as Holtby has a say in these companies.

Howtby still didn’t understand what Feng Xiaochen had done for him, but he did it uncompromisingly.Of course, the company is more high-end than the collection of intelligence, and the revenue has also increased significantly.With a small stake in many companies, Hotby’s network in the industry has been strengthened, and from time to time he is invited to dinner, and there are more opportunities to enter and exit various high-end places, which makes Hotby feel that he has been reborn.

After realizing that Feng Xiaochen was his real boss, Holtby began to seriously study the new owner.He searched the newspaper database for Feng Xiaochen's name and unexpectedly found that the name appeared very frequently.He collected those news reports involving Feng Xiaochen, and after reading it, he had a new understanding of Feng Xiaochen, and vaguely guessed a few points about his mission.

The Chinese are implementing a policy known as “taoguang” that is public and somewhat strange.Because from a common sense, a person or a country to perform low-key, can only be secretly doing this, and can not publicly declare to others that they are low-key, but what the Chinese people do is to claim to the world that they are low-key, forbearance, in the salary to try to figure out, is not a strange thing?

However, people around the world ignore this statement of the Chinese people, they firmly believe that China is not deliberately pursuing a low-key, but China has nothing to do high-profile, the so-called Taoguang is just to shame their own incompetence.

Hotby is one of the few Westerners who realize that the Chinese have ambitions, and he knows from the time he first served the Chinese.Many large European companies that seem to be invincible, the Chinese are already secretly eyeing.They are gathering intelligence on these companies, looking for their weaknesses, and then quietly digging into the corners of these companies, bit by bit, cannibalizing their market share and competitiveness.Indeed, the Chinese are now too weak to overwlize these European monopolies.But they are far-sighted and firm-willed, and they are silently learning Western advanced technology, cultivating their own technical teams, improving their own strength, and preparing for the moment of accumulation.

In the process of contact with Bao Chengming and others, Hotby can feel that competing with big-name companies in Europe is not all the ideals of these Chinese people, they want far more, and their goal is the sea of stars.