Cheng Yan is known in the mergers and acquisitions world as a "cold-blooded dealmaker." Not one case she's handled has ever gone wrong.
Lin Xu is the youngest founder in industrial AI, convinced that technology should solve real problems, not become a tool for capital to profit from arbitrage.
Five years ago, they were lovers and colleagues at the same company. The sale led by Cheng Yan was the first time Lin Xu saw the logic of capital clearly, and it made her decide never again to put her fate in someone else's hands.
Five years later, Lin Xu's company, Xuwei Technology, is running out of funds. The lead investor in its final funding round is Cheng Yan's Yanshi Capital.
At the negotiating table, Cheng Yan is strictly professional and her terms are harsh. Lin Xu refuses to budge, rebutting them one by one.
But Lin Xu soon discovers that the terms Cheng Yan has offered conceal a blade. It isn't aimed at her, but at the truth that no one saw clearly in the deal five years ago.
"Please call me Ms. Lin, President Cheng."
"All right, Ms. Lin."
It took them five years to learn one thing:
True partnership doesn't mean one person taking a blade for the other. It means both people holding their own blades, then choosing to face the same direction.
Theme: A truly mature intimate relationship is one between two independent people who each hold the power to set their own worth, then choose to stand together.
