Rebirth 2010: I taught Mr. Lei how to make a mobile phone

Chapter 888 Lakeside Lament and Capital Warfare
"They loudly proclaim that 'employees are not a cost, but the foundation,' but forget that without a boss, where would employees come from?"

They talk about 'ultimate transparency' and 'sharing the pie in the long run,' but business itself is about calculating risks and returns, it's about survival of the fittest, it's not a dinner party, much less a utopian ideal for children playing house.

They constantly talk about "redefining business ethics" and "treating labor laws as faith," using "anti-exploitation" as a slogan and "eliminating exploitation" as their banner, engaging in business-anti-business activities.

It's a pity that people like that can all be alive and kicking.

As he spoke, tears welled up in Old Ma's eyes:

"My brother went through many trials and tribulations in his life. He forged a path to market economy from the thorns of planned economy and steered the giant ship of enterprise in the wave of policy. He dared to be the first in the world and was able to wait for the clouds to clear and the moon to shine. He made countless contributions to China's economy. In this way, he grew old and died far from home!"
Do you all agree?

"No!" The crowd below responded in unison, the sound waves crashing against the dome and falling back to the ground, stirring up the dust that had been sleeping in the corner.

Looking at the enthusiastic crowd, a hint of satisfaction flashed in Old Ma's eyes.
"Everyone, please stand and observe a moment of silence!"

At Old Ma's command, the auditorium fell completely silent.

The minute of silence seemed to freeze time.

Following this, led by Old Ma, everyone performed a virtual flower-offering ceremony, since they had no family members left.
In front of the venue, there was only a black and white photograph and virtual white flowers around it, carrying a complex and indistinct sense of sorrow.

Finally, as the president of Lakeside University, Lao Ma began to wrap things up.
"What makes a lakeside place a lakeside place is not empty talk of idealism, but a respect for the laws of the market."

It is precisely because we respect reality, have reverence for the market, and know how to find rhythm amidst chaos that we achieve this.

We must not be misled by certain 'new ideas' that sound correct but are detached from reality, nor should we lose our composure.

In times of great change, we must return to common sense: businesses need to make a profit, management needs to be efficient, and competition requires resilience.

Today, as we gather here to mourn, we must also remind ourselves not to be morally blackmailed, and even more importantly, not to be led astray.

Only by uniting as one and consolidating our foundation can we pass on true business wisdom from generation to generation.

Before he could finish speaking, Old Ma clenched his fist and swung it forward heavily.
"As long as we join hands, the future of China's economy will surely belong to each and every one of us!"

His impassioned words were like a fire, instantly igniting the emotions of the entire audience.

Seeing the emotions stirred in the audience, Lao Ma nodded to himself; at least the effect was quite good.

Behind the hundreds of students and teachers from Lakeside Academy in the audience lies a vast business empire covering many fields such as the Internet, technology, and manufacturing.

These companies have a total valuation of trillions of RMB and occupy a pivotal position in the chessboard of China's private economy.

Taking advantage of this opportunity to mourn, Lao Ma gathered everyone together, and a powerful force capable of stirring up the business world was quietly gathering – their common enemy was the huge power formed by the combination of old and new capital, represented by the Beyond Group.

This upcoming business war is not only about the rise and fall of enterprises, but also a life-or-death struggle for Chinese business philosophy and ecosystem.

Although Lao Liu is no longer here.

But it still has some effect!

"Hey, have you heard?"

"what?"

Willow is gone.

"Is this fake? Don't spread rumors!"

"Your company's network is still stuck in the 2G era? Absolutely! It's all over the Lakeside group chat, the memorial service is already over."

"Then why didn't you go?"

"It's not like you can just go whenever you want. You need a company with a scale of over 10 billion to qualify!"

"However, things have been going wrong lately. This month, there has been a surge in the number of fugitives on Interpol’s Red Notice returning to China to surrender. There are at least 20 or 30 such people, which is equivalent to the number in the past two or three years. I don’t know what’s going on."

"It seems the news wasn't lying; things are indeed not peaceful abroad, while things are much more stable at home."

"Our business is small and has nothing to do with these big storms. We're not even in the running to pick up the wrappers when it comes to dividing the cake."

"How about we join the 'Strengthening' project of the Other Shore Group? I heard that the performance of the companies that participate has almost doubled."

"Stop dreaming! With all the overtime at your company, just the overtime pay they demand would bankrupt you!"

"Yeah, that's true."

Currently, similar rumors are circulating in Chinese business circles, causing some business tycoons with guilty consciences to panic. They have had to temporarily cancel their plans to fly abroad and instead decide to observe for a while.

This includes Pan Shiyi, the head of SOHO Real Estate, who specifically called his wife in the United States to remind her to be careful and even hired an additional security force to protect his family.

As a seasoned professional in the industry, he is well aware of the intricacies involved—since 2014, SOHO China has shifted from a "development-sales" model to a "development-self-holding" model in order to flexibly dispose of assets at key junctures in the future.

With the situation unclear, he had to observe cautiously. From the recent series of events, he vaguely sensed that "traitors will not have a good end."

Xu Jiayin of Evergrande doesn't care about any of this messy stuff. He's riding high right now, and he wouldn't run away even if you told him to. There's no place like China! Because he's finally reached the top, kicked Wang Jianlin off the throne, and become the undisputed number one in the industry!

Evergrande's revenue hit a new record this year, exceeding 4000 billion yuan in just 10 months, representing a year-on-year increase of 34%.

Sales area reached 5024 million square meters, a year-on-year increase of 12.6%;

Core business profit: surged to 405.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 94.7%;

Net profit: increased to 370.5 billion yuan, a significant year-on-year increase of 110.3%;

With this achievement, Evergrande successfully surpassed Wanda, Country Garden and Vanke, becoming the first real estate company in China to win both sales revenue and sales area, and ascending to the top spot in the industry.

In the first two months, Evergrande's most eye-catching capital operation was the introduction of a total of 1300 billion yuan in strategic investment in three rounds, bringing in 25 powerful investors including CITIC, Shandong Expressway, Shenzhen Investment Holdings, Suning, and Zhongrong.

Moreover, Lao Xu believes that the diversified business is also developing quite well:

Evergrande Health: Begins to focus on developing the big health industry.

Evergrande Tourism: Creating a "Children's World" theme park.

Hengda Bao: Hengda Financial Services, which underwent a transformation due to the impact of the P2P lending crisis.

It also has businesses such as Evergrande Spring Water and Evergrande Football Club.
Although Evergrande still has a lot of debt to settle, its overall situation is very good.

If Jia Yueting hadn't abandoned car manufacturing and gone off to sell products online, Xu Jiayin might have even considered investing in Faraday Future. Unfortunately, before he knew it, the latter was acquired by Chen Mo, that little black dog.

In fact, he had seen the potential of this little black dog a few years ago and wanted to win it over at the Two Sessions under the guise of a song and dance troupe performance, just like he had once tried to win over Ma Ying-jeou.

It's worth noting that his song and dance troupe has an excellent reputation within certain circles; everyone who has seen their performances praises them.

They are all top-notch dancers, selected from thousands, and have performed on the Spring Festival Gala multiple times.

People like him who watch it often linger and become so engrossed that they can't help but linger.

With this quality, anyone who sees it will be confused.

If Chen Mo could just walk into the dance troupe and see a vibrant and captivating performance, he believed that with the youthful vigor of the young man, he would definitely understand the immense appeal of Evergrande.

Unfortunately, for some reason, this kid just wouldn't take the bait and avoided him like the plague.

As he watched the other side grow bigger and stronger, Lao Xu would invite them every year, but they always declined, saying they had back pain.

Old Xu felt frustrated because he had discovered a promising stock but could only watch helplessly, as if he had missed out on a great opportunity.

He could see that real estate and the internet were areas where the country was vigorously developing in parallel.

He was in the real estate industry, while Lao Ma and Xiao Chen in the internet industry formed two different patterns, one old and one new. He bet on one hand, forming Evergrande's synergistic development strategy of grasping both hands and being strong in both.

Unfortunately, now only Old Ma's leg, which is neither thick nor thin, remains.

A while ago, Lao Ma came to watch a song and dance performance again and showed him the impressive list of investors for Ant Group's pre-IPO round next year. In his opinion, all the investors on the list were very famous.

It includes four main categories: national team funds, large domestic investment institutions, overseas sovereign wealth funds and giant private equity funds, totaling dozens of companies.

Old Ma needs reputable companies like Evergrande to further amplify the influence of Ant Group's financing.

Xu, on the other hand, was attracted by Ant Group's financial technology capabilities and hoped to create a synergistic effect with Evergrande's own real estate business (community finance, property fee payment, housing loans, and consumer installment payments).

The two discussed and reviewed the project, and eventually finalized their intention to invest 50 billion yuan.

"Last time you came to the show, you casually threw out 6 million yuan to invest in Evergrande Football. This time, I invited you to the show again, but I'm the one who suddenly gave away 50 billion yuan. Don't you see how old I am? Can you handle it?" Old Xu sighed breathlessly.

"Every investment made now will yield exponential returns in the future. This will be the largest IPO in history, and the entire world will be awestruck!"
And you, my friend!
The name Evergrande will be remembered by the world in the future!

Old Xu still remembers the meaningful words Old Ma left behind before he left: "You always watch programs in China, don't you get tired of it? I'll take you abroad to broaden your horizons sometime."

Old Xu harbored an even greater ambition: the National Day celebrations two years from now.

He had inquired around and learned that there would be a grand military parade, accompanied by a parade of floats carrying entrepreneurs.

What he wanted more than just getting on the bus was climbing the building, something that would bring glory to his ancestors and make him famous in history.

He knew that the float parade and the ceremony held on the city tower were worlds apart, both in terms of significance and the threshold for participation.

There is no explicit limit on the number of entrepreneurs allowed to attend the ceremony from the Tiananmen Rostrum, but Lao Xu guesses that it should not exceed one hand's worth.

If Evergrande maintains its performance this year in the next two years, it may well have a chance. And its opponent, on the surface, is the black dog that is lurking at the gates of Beijing, barking wildly.

This is the deepest reason why Lao Xu invested in Lao Ma.

Only when the West Wind prevails over the East Wind can there be a win-win situation for all parties, widespread success, and a grand celebration from the city tower.
(End of this chapter)