Chapter 79: The Billionaire Banquet

After a satisfying meal, they hired a fishing boat to drift along the river, admiring the scenery—willows swaying gently, a cool breeze blowing. People bustled along the embankment: some hurrying past, some sitting quietly on the bank to enjoy the wind and view, others snapping photos, and still more listening intently to the guides’ stories.

Aside from the lively hum of voices, everything else was peaceful. The water flowed silently, passing under small bridges, by old houses nestled along the banks. The boatman sang as he rowed, guiding the boat with the current. He was accustomed to this fulfilling, drifting life, letting the rippling waves compose a beautiful song.

The riverside dwellers left their windows open, setting pots of blooming flowers on their sills. They breathed in the fragrance, the fresh air, and listened to the creaking of boats gliding past their doors.

They heard the bustle of people drawing near, then fading away again—waking each day to the quiet murmur of flowing water, and falling asleep to the soft glow of lanterns lighting up the night...

“I envy the people who live here in Wuzhen,” Qianqian murmured to Zhuang Chen as she leaned against him for a rest after their walk. “I envy that they and their ancestors have lived in this paradise for generations, that they’ve preserved those classic, ancient heirlooms, that they can watch over their old homes and live lives as tranquil and fluid as the water passing by…”

They sat by the roadside, taking in the scenery, watching the passersby, glancing at the shops, listening to the footsteps—soft and heavy, young and old. They savored the local dialects drifting by, the sound of the flowing water—such simple pleasures were rare treats.

Zhuang Chen couldn’t help but sigh, wondering what the lives of Wuzhen’s once-wealthy families had been like.

Was it a life of ease, dressed in fine clothes, savoring delicious food every day?
Or was it a life of endless business, bustling and busy?
Was it full of quarrels and disputes?
Or was it harmonious and prosperous?

As dusk fell, they wandered through the town’s illuminated nightscape, unable to deny that Wuzhen was a true utopia—a haven of rustic charm, a water town bursting with birdsong and blossoms, a place where nature painted everything in ink and wash: old houses, arched bridges, flowing rivers, and peaceful homes, all part of a living canvas.

They found a restaurant, ordered Wuzhen’s famed braised lamb, and sipped the local “Three Whites” wine—made from white rice, white flour, and pure water—relishing the poetic sense of drifting into spring’s embrace, of awakening to the scent of flags on a bridge at dawn.

Braised duck in ancient sauce… Wuzhen’s poached whitefish… glutinous rice dumplings stuffed with pork…

Stinky tofu… green rice balls… “Victory Cake”…

Returning to their hotel, they stood by the window, gazing out at the water town’s nightscape—the lights layered like mist, the clouds and rain of distant mountains lending the scene a subtle, dreamlike beauty.

Afterwards, the girl lay in his arms, lazily pulling out her phone. She found a photo and, in a mock-mysterious tone, asked, “Since you love gourmet food so much, have you heard of last year’s top-tier Wuzhen banquet?”

Zhuang Chen was surprised. Was there a hidden century-old restaurant here?

She burst out laughing. “I’m talking about the Internet Conference!” she said proudly. “Every year, it’s the same ironclad Internet Conference, but the guests at Ding Lei’s dinner change. Since the first conference in 2014, Ding Lei from NetEase has hosted these gatherings for four years in a row, each one bigger than the last, with other big names following his lead.”

She showed him a widely circulated photo. “Look at all these moguls, eating heartily. The dishes are lavish—wine, meat, pastries—and every one of them is a tycoon. Altogether, the net worth at that table is in the hundreds of billions!”

Zhuang Chen took the phone and zoomed in. According to the caption, starting clockwise from Pony Ma of Tencent: Richard Liu of JD.com, Zhang Lei from Hillhouse Capital, Cheng Wei from Didi, Su Hua from Kuaishou, Wang Xiaofeng from Mobike, Wang Huiwen from Meituan, Zhou Yuan from Zhihu, Yao Jinbo from 58.com.

These were all the new stars of the Internet. On the other side: Zhu Xiaohu from GSR Ventures, Chen Shengqiang from JD Finance, Yang Yuanqing from Lenovo, Neil Shen from Sequoia Capital, Zhang Yiming from ByteDance, Lei Jun from Xiaomi, Wang Xing from NewMeituan.

If your fortune wasn’t in the billions, you’d be embarrassed to even take a seat!

The most prestigious seat, of course, was the one facing the door, with the host’s right and left hand—the closer you sat to the host, the higher your status. Pony Ma, the new richest man with a fortune of 230 billion, sat in the center with a commanding presence.

Beside him, Wang Huiwen and Richard Liu were the right and left hands, seated in places of honor and dressed very formally in suits and ties. Pony Ma wore only a gray T-shirt—casual and relaxed. JD on his left, Meituan on his right—he was, after all, the behind-the-scenes investor in both. Richard Liu wore a gentle, almost fawning smile.

“This is from the year before last,” Qianqian pointed out another photo. “Pony Ma and Robin Li weren’t at the table, so the one in the spotlight at the center is Yang Yuanqing from Lenovo.”

She pointed out details: “Look at Lei Jun’s shiny forehead, it really catches the eye. At the moment the photo was taken, Sohu’s Charles Zhang slyly sat down, showing just his head so he wouldn’t be lost in the crowd.”

“And what’s most remarkable is that Pony Ma and Zhou Hongyi from 360, who once fought fiercely in the 3Q War, are finally at the same table. Could they be burying the hatchet?”

Zhuang Chen laughed heartily. “Where did they have this feast?”

“I heard it was at a place called Zhaoming Bookhouse Restaurant. That’s what the internet says, who knows if it’s true?” Qianqian replied.

“Later, Lei Jun posted a photo on Weibo showing the menu from that night,” she added, finding another picture for him. “The dish names are so clever!”

Cold appetizers: Zhaoming’s Eight Cold Plates…

Hot dishes: Tencent’s Four Seas Steamed Lobster, Meituan’s Fresh Delicacy Soup, JD’s Purple Qi Snowflake Beef, Xiaomi’s Cinnamon Abalone, Mobike’s Ocean Grouper…

Zhuang Chen couldn’t help but smile—at these banquets, the more distinguished the guest, the more luxurious the ingredient: Tencent was lobster, JD was snowflake beef, Lenovo was crab…

By the end, it was mostly vegetables—Kuaishou as winter melon, Zhihu as seasonal greens?

All the dishes were named after companies—sixteen in total, including Xiaomi, Tencent, Meituan, JD, Hillhouse, Lenovo, ByteDance, Mobike, Kuaishou, and 58.com.

The moguls really knew how to have fun.

“There were even reports online that they played a game called ‘I Love You VS Shameless’,” Qianqian recounted. “You had to tell the person on your left ‘I love you,’ and the one on your right ‘Shameless.’ If you got it wrong, you were punished. These business tycoons, who usually count their profits by the second, finally let loose and played like kids.”

“But they paid for it the next day! Especially Richard Liu—he’d rushed through several dinners that night and was caught nodding off during a serious meeting the next day by a reporter!”

Qianqian burst into a fit of laughter, her chest heaving, and Zhuang Chen couldn’t resist reaching out to hold her.

The combined market value of these companies exceeded five trillion, and netizens dubbed the event “the Internet’s Half-the-Sky Gathering,” or even “the most valuable dinner party in the Eastern Hemisphere.”

Since 2014, the number of attendees at Ding Lei’s dinners had grown steadily. In 2014, Ding Lei dined with Zhang Chaoyang, Shen Xiangyang, and seven other moguls at two tables. In 2015, the party expanded to eleven, and in 2016, up to seventeen people, with three tables crowded with guests.

New waves continually replaced the old; in 2014, the dinner was dominated by entrepreneurs born in the 1960s and 70s, but by last year, there were already many born in the 1980s—Zhang Yiming, Cheng Wei, Zhou Yuan, and more.

2015 was the realm of the traditional web portals; by 2016, the field had expanded to include smartphones and everyday consumer services. In 2017, Mobike, Kuaishou, Didi, and Zhihu joined in, representing the booming sectors of consumer, sharing economy, and content industries.

There were even stories of the moguls sampling pork raised on Ding Lei’s own farms, crabs, and Shaoxing rice wine. Pony Ma was the best drinker and most generous host, Zhang Lei and Zhang Chaoyang discussed health regimens, and Charles Cao recounted how he once missed out on Yahoo…

That night, Yu Chengdong, Lei Jun, Zhou Hongyi, and Yang Yuanqing dominated the conversation, turning the banquet into a smartphone summit—until Ding Lei had no choice but to intervene:

“Can we not talk about phones?”