Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled

Chen Pingsheng stayed in Xiangjiang for a full week.

The CEO class ended in three days, and it was mainly about attending some private gatherings behind the scenes.

The first day's gathering for wealthy individuals wasn't too bad, but he had no interest in it whatsoever.

The next day, Mr. Pidai also arrived in Xiangjiang and even held a top-notch private party there.

There were quite a few accompanying female celebrities, and the girls from the dance troupe were all even more charmingly beautiful.

In recent years, Hengda has invested a lot in football, and besides fattening a flock of Hainanese chicken, it's hard to say if it has any other significance.

He, Mr. Ma, and Wang Jianlin took turns occupying the throne of the richest man these past few years.

To say they were spirited would be an understatement—whether in the business world or political circles, their status was far beyond what he could compare with at the moment.

Chen Pingsheng, like an outsider, watched Mr. Pidai maneuver intricately, but in the end, it was all about making money.

However, with Mr. Pidai's status, he was very good at leveraging his advantages, never directly asking you for money but instead having you eagerly bring money to seek his favor.

Mr. Ma also spent over ten billion to purchase half the shares of Hengda's football team.

Mr. Pidai was very sociable, not even discussing the price and letting Mr. Ma name his offer.

Football was just a lure; in Mr. Pidai's heart, what he really valued was not Mr. Ma's ten billion.

What he desired more was for Mr. Ma to invest in Hengda real estate, as only then could the profits be maximized.

It's a pity that Mr. Ma was such a wise man.

During an interview with reporters, he publicly stated he would never invest in real estate.

Mr. Pidai turned livid on the spot.

This was something he had learned about when visiting Mr. Ma in Hangzhou.

The two had a lengthy chat in Hangzhou.

It was quite surprising that Mr. Pidai also wanted to get into new energy.

But this visit was more about Hengda's property management.

He was preparing to spin off the property management from real estate to form a separate publicly listed company.

Mr. Pidai had significant influence in Xiangjiang and, with Liu Daxiong providing protection, raising tens to hundreds of billions was no difficult task.

Chen Pingsheng didn't invest a single penny.

Nor did he have any intention of getting closer to him; mainly because, as his own net worth continued to surge, he naturally came to understand more and more.

Take Hengda's debt, which outsiders still did not understand, it was astronomical.

No amount of surface prosperity could hide the fact that its debt ratio was too high.

If such a company never defaults, it's one thing, but once it defaults, it's sure to be catastrophic.

Apart from the nation stepping in, no private company could possibly take over such a burden.

Not even the combined might of the BAT trio would suffice, such was the potential magnitude of the default.

The development of the real estate industry has reached a point where nine out of ten companies are in a similar position.

Only the real estate tycoons of Xiangjiang remain stable.

After having two drinks, Chen Pingsheng left. He would rather spend that time at home with his wife and children.
Continue reading on empire

In mid-November, after returning to Magic City, Tong Zelan came to see him.

She even brought three billion in funds to sign an investment agreement with Yateng Short Drama, a mere small sum for him.

Chen Pingsheng didn't care much about it; what really interested him was what Zelan mentioned afterwards.

"Old Chen, it's confirmed. Mr. Pidai now also wants to get into new energy, and he has at least twice the capital you have."

Chen Pingsheng was not too surprised; even professors in those top business schools had begun to say that the turning point in real estate was coming.

Did Mr. Pidai not understand that himself?

Understanding was one thing; whether he could land safely was another matter entirely.

With such a massive debt, it's not something a boss can simply walk away from at will.

His current attempt to invest in new energy was undoubtedly an aggressive tactic to use another fulcrum to pry more capital into protecting his interests.

Plainly speaking, it was just another profits-first approach of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

"Aren't there few enough these past two years who've wanted to jump into making new energy vehicles? Surely you didn't come specifically to remind me of this," Chen Pingsheng remarked.

"Can Mr. Pidai be compared to others? He is, after all, Huaxia's richest man listed on Forbes," said Zelan.

"Out of the current new energy companies, your Tengfei is undoubtedly the one with the most cash investment. More investment also means more risk, but of course, if you do succeed, the benefits later on are incomparable to those enterprises dependent on contract manufacturing.

"I never would've imagined that you would put fifty billion all by yourself into this. You're a bit too bold this time, but considering your company has never been in debt, you're entitled to take this risk. The only pity is that your investment is too high, so enormous that even we don't dare to take the plunge with you."

"It's all right," Chen Pingsheng replied indifferently. "The car-making business is quite complex, and I don't want to be influenced by others. I invest my own money and play it by ear. Besides real estate, Mr. Pidai has also ventured into many side businesses. Have you seen any of them succeed?"

"That's true," Zelan agreed, having only intended to warn him that Mr. Pidai might really start making cars.

That would add another formidable competitor within the new energy sector.

Little did Zelan know that Chen Pingsheng never considered Mr. Pidai a rival.

In his view, there would only be two competitors in the future of this industry.

One was Tesla, which had yet to enter the Huaxia market, and the other was Huawei.

The R&D capability of Huawei was undeniable, and once it entered the new energy car-making field, it would undoubtedly change the entire industry landscape.

Not to mention Tesla, the global leader in the new energy market.

Other than these two, only BYD deserved attention.

The reason he set aside fifty billion in the first year to establish eight research institutes was mainly to counteract the future competition from these three companies.

It could be said his planning was quite far-reaching indeed, and he never considered the new internet car makers a challenge.

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Not to mention Xu Pidai, who was selling houses.

Tong Zelan saw that he was quite confident and didn't bother to say much more.

Hearing that he had invested 2.5 billion into Meituan for a 2% stake was also quite astonishing.

So far, he had only invested in three internet companies.

One was Pinduoduo, one was Meituan, and the other was Melon Seed Used Cars.

Investing was a rather tedious and boring affair, and Chen Pingsheng hadn't put too much thought into it.

If he saw something suitable, he'd invest a bit, but if he was completely unfamiliar with it, there was no need for them to come to him.

He definitely wouldn't invest.

…

Tong Zelan had spent the morning here, and it was clear that Tengying Group was becoming stronger and stronger.

Beyond its main business in entertainment, its investments in various sectors were also thriving.

No wonder Old Chen could afford to ignore Xu Pidai outright—he truly had the capacity.

Aside from the 300 million she brought for investing in Yateng Short Drama, she was mainly interested in seeing whether his new energy vehicle business needed to woo funds.

That meant raising one or two hundred billion from the capital market.

Clearly, Chen Pingsheng didn't need it at all at the moment.

And at this time, raising funds wouldn't raise Tengfei New Energy's valuation much at all.

Even the initial capital investment of 50 billion might not be there.

After Tong Zelan left, Chen Pingsheng called his busty secretary Zhang Wanyi to draft an investment contract.

Tengying Entertainment would also invest 200 million cash for a 20% stake in Yateng Short Drama.

With Tong Zelan's prior investment of 300 million, an evaluation of one billion for Yateng Short Drama definitely existed.

The main reason for letting Tengying Entertainment take a stake was to use the high income of Yateng Short Drama at the moment to push Tengying Entertainment's market value into the hundreds of billions.

Only by doing so could he maximize his personal profit.

After all, the magnitude of income growth from pushing stock prices alone could easily be tens or even hundreds of billions.

Up till now, Yateng Short Drama had only spent a total of 30 million from its founding to the completion of shooting.

Through these two rounds of financing, he had also secured 470 million in discretionary funds.

Chen Pingsheng started rolling the dice again and, with terrible luck, rolled a two.

His bank account received 940 million, and his wife's account received the initial capital investment of 500 million.

The wallet, which had been emptied by the hefty investment in Meituan, was now plump again.

He was in a good mood.

"Wanyi, bring me the income report for the art school students filming the short drama," he said.

Short dramas were very profitable, even more so than TV dramas.

This was not just shocking to the entire entertainment industry, but even he himself found it surprising.

Zhang Wanyi brought over a financial statement for him to see.

The cost of producing a short drama was roughly around one million.

The director's salary was the highest, followed by professional editors and screenwriters.

And in the realm of TV dramas, where lead actor salaries took a large chunk of the budget, in short dramas they accounted for less than 10% of the total cost.

It wasn't just one or two lead actors – all actors in short dramas combined didn't even make a hundred thousand in salary.

Cost control in short dramas was simply far more advantageous compared to TV dramas.

The biggest investment cost for a profitable short drama was still internet traffic.

For example, placing the short drama on the top pages of the three major video websites, or advertising on platforms like TikTok and Kwai.

This cost was the highest.

It would roughly account for 20% to 30% of total revenue.

After all deductions, the net income of a short drama could still maintain above 50%.

The main reason was the low cost of production.

Compared with TV dramas, which easily involve investments of one or two hundred million, short drama investments were negligible.

Financially speaking, Yateng Short Drama was undoubtedly very successful.

He had truly created another cash cow.

"Allocate an additional percentage of profits to key personnel. Take out 10% and you draft the specific details of the profit sharing," he said.

Chen Pingsheng put the financial statement to one side. He wanted to allocate a certain percentage for profit-sharing to maintain his consistent business philosophy: when there's money, everyone should earn together.

For instance, one of the female leads had acted in three of the five short dramas that had been released.

Combined, her earnings were less than fifty thousand.

She must have been very excited about it, since they recruited some rural girls during their time at the art school.

Not only could they earn a steady three thousand salary each month, but they could also make tens of thousands by filming short dramas.

Who wouldn't be happy with that!

But her earnings compared to what their company made were like a drop in the ocean.

Even if she could only get 1% of the profit share from that 10%,

it would be a few million in cash, not even comparable to her small salary.

He couldn't be the only one making big money, leaving others with nothing but a sip of soup.

That wouldn't align with long-term interests at all.

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