Generation Z Artists

Chapter 392 It's so great to spend American money!
The new troubles of happiness mainly consist of two points—

First point: Now that you have money, how do you spend it?
Second point: I already have a Star Glory rank, how do I add points?
Fang Xinghe kept a clear distinction between public and private spending.

Even before StarNet went public, he secretly ordered a large aircraft from Boeing.

After StarNet went public, its stock price soared. So the company seized a day when the stock price was high, generously paid out the deposit, and published an announcement on the Nasdaq website.

Title: Announcement of Resolutions of the 14th Meeting of the 7th Board of Directors of Xingwang Weibo

The Grünster method is very standard.

The meeting's time, location, format, and attending directors.

The deliberation of the proposal (voting results, and abstention of related directors).

Independent Directors' Opinions.

Arrangements for subsequent shareholders' meetings.

List of documents for reference...

The main contents of the "Proposal on Purchasing Business Jet" that was reviewed and approved are as follows:
"StarNet has achieved a global footprint and is expanding in multiple locations. In order to meet the global travel needs of the company's senior management and reduce long-term travel costs, the company will use the financing funds to purchase a large passenger aircraft and a small business jet..."

The model and specifications are as follows...

The transaction is for personal use...

This transaction will have no negative impact on the company's daily operations, financial condition, or funding arrangements..."

These small American institutions and retail investors are chasing the high prices. After reading the announcement, I felt like I'd been punched in the nose by Tyson's right hook. My head was spinning and my vision was going black.

It's not unusual for large companies to buy private jets, but Fang Ge's purchase this time is quite different.

Not only did they buy two at a time, but they also spent a fortune on them!
The smaller one is the Gulfstream G550, currently the most popular private jet, and the first ultra-long-range large business jet in human aviation history capable of flying directly from New York to Tokyo.

With a maximum range of 6750 nautical miles (12501 kilometers), it can easily fly directly from Beishangji to Los Angeles.

It can accommodate up to 19 passengers, with enough room for 8 people to sleep comfortably.

The price isn't high either; the classic configuration costs only $4800 million, and when StarNet customized it, the interior was enhanced, bringing the total price to just $6500 million.

If that were all, Americans would probably have tolerated it.

But Fang felt that the capacity of 19 people was not enough, so he bought an additional Boeing 777-200ER VIP.

With the same range, its fuselage width of 5.87 meters is twice that of the Gulfstream G550, and its height of 2.39 meters is also significantly greater than the Gulfstream's 1.88 meters.

The VIP layout can accommodate 80 to 100 people without affecting the interior layout, which includes independent cabins, large conference rooms, restaurants, gyms, and even small cinemas.

Of course, the price is also quite attractive—the standard luxury version costs $1.8 million, while the StarNet special edition is $2.35 million.

Hey, did you see that?

Two planes, exactly 3 million in prize money, purely aiming to spend a round number~~~
How much is $3 million worth these days?

To use the stock market analogy: you could buy about 4300 million shares of Apple stock, becoming a 3.5% individual shareholder, and then have that become $1480 billion by 2025.

So it's no wonder there's a lot of complaining in North American financial circles; this money has really hurt stock and fund investors.

Its sensational nature made headlines in the financial sector.

StarNet's stock price fell sharply, dropping from a high of $688.82 to around $450, and then began to consolidate.

The result delighted top financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, PJ, and JPMorgan Chase.

"Fang, is there anything else you need?"

The boss of Sequoia Capital America, like a lackey, kept asking Fang Ge, "Office buildings? Yachts? Properties in Tokyo, Europe or America?"

"We do need a few places to stay, you know, I'm always on the move." Brother Fang paused, then added with a hint of reserve, "But is this appropriate?"

"Perfect! Why wouldn't it be perfect?"

American shareholders were overjoyed and urged the company on like crazy.

"We have more than enough funds! Moreover, meeting your living needs doesn't conflict with the company's core development strategy. You are the face, the soul, the emperor of StarNet! How can the company develop properly if we don't take good care of you?!"

Emperor Fang glanced at the guy and felt like he was seeing Japanese and puppet troops from an anti-Japanese war movie.

That logic... you're definitely of pure blood!

Emperor Fang maintained his composure and nodded slightly: "Then you can handle it as you see fit. Seoul, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, Washington... wherever the branch offices are located, prepare a place for me as soon as possible."

"Alright!" The group nodded vigorously. "Leave it to us!"

They worked extremely quickly and immediately arranged various independent manors for Emperor Fang.

As for why...

This isn't business logic, it's financial logic.

The root cause: The irrational surge in Xingwang's stock price in a short period of time is not a good thing.

Everyone has realized that StarNet Weibo is a good product, so a good product should be explored to discover its greater value.

At this juncture, everyone's interests diverged.

Strategic investors want to acquire more shares at the lowest possible price, retail and institutional investors want to ride the wave and make money, and underwriters want to maintain their industry reputation and secure long-term cooperation opportunities...

Short-term speculative investors hope that StarNet will rise to $1000 tomorrow, while long-term holding investors hope to create enough volatility to shake out short-term traders.

However, in the US financial market, market manipulation is an absolute red line.

In other words, stock prices must fall naturally in a "market manner" to squeeze out the bubble, rather than being driven by underwriters and institutions "colluding to sell, dumping shares, and spreading negative news".

At the very least, it can't be the kind of low-level operation that's easy to detect.

So, when StarNet's top management started spending unnecessary money, it created distrust in the market, made some small institutions and retail investors hesitant, and caused the stock price to fall. This was actually good news for these giants.

Fang Xinghe's way of spending money is precisely on the line—it makes it impossible for the SEC to find any problems while also causing discomfort to the market.

No joke, the SEC really did send a letter of inquiry to StarNet, asking what Dong Ge (Liu Qiangdong) was planning to do.

The wording was very harsh, and one sentence in particular conveyed the following meaning:

"Nasdaq is such a huge market in the US, with so many global listed companies. Which one of you has done this? The first big expense you made right after listing was to buy an airplane, and it cost $300 million! How terrible is that? Don't you take us seriously at all?!"

Dong Ge replied with a wronged tone, "We did spend a lot on buying the plane. There's no precedent for this in the US, so we completely understand."

But please understand us, our chairman and brand core is Fang Xinghe!

As a top global icon, it's far too much trouble for him to travel.

With assistants, security personnel, business entourage, and stylists, the entire team would need to be at least 50 people to even leave the airport!

When traveling to countries with particularly enthusiastic fans, security alone requires four teams of 48 people.

Chairmen of multinational corporations frequently travel between the US, China, Japan, South Korea, and Europe. While other chairmen can easily travel with a team of 10, our chairman can't even leave the house without a Boeing 777!

The SEC's investigative committee held a closed-door meeting.

At the meeting, everyone agreed that SR is indeed different from others, and the money should be spent; there's nothing wrong with that.

Someone muttered to themselves: Actually, he could afford airplanes, yachts, and mansions with his own money...

No one ignored him.

It is perfectly reasonable for major shareholders to spend company money with the permission of the board of directors.

BlackRock and Sequoia are both happy to let Fang Xinghe spend money, what are we to care about?
Then, an investigation report was issued stating that this action was an internal business decision of the company, possessed considerable rationality and necessity, and did not violate any regulations.

BlackRock and Sequoia were naturally delighted; as long as Fang Xinghe didn't sell his shares, they could tolerate anything.

Goldman Sachs and those other institutions were also happy. The stock price steadily declined, so they got to work! In this way, StarNet poured in more than 7 million yuan, buying a bunch of office buildings around the world under the guise of allocating fixed assets to reduce rental pressure. They also bought a few manor villas and large apartments, as well as cars like Rolls-Royce extended wheels.

Hey, it's not much, just over a hundred million!

Besides, those are all company assets; the company chairman only uses them occasionally.
By this time, Fang Xinghe had basically met all his material needs in life.

They travel by their own plane, land with a line of armored cars, have their own houses to stay in wherever they go, and bring their own chefs whenever they want to eat something.

With no more worries, I can squander the money in my personal account as I please.

So he used his own money to build another 1000 schools.

—Note that he also does charity work in the US, Japan, and South Korea, but he follows local rules and acts in the name of StarNet. His personal charitable activities are strictly limited to the tax deduction limit, and he exaggerates them as much as he wants when promoting them.

It's different in the country, where there's a comprehensive plan.

He spent nearly 30 billion yuan on this batch of schools, expanding the coverage to junior and senior high schools, but only rushed to build them in the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan.

When pressed by puzzled domestic media, he replied as follows:

"After personally traveling all over the country, I truly felt the importance and urgency of helping impoverished students."

Although my hometown is in Northeast China, I must say in a realistic way that it is indeed easier to provide educational assistance in the Northeast. The previous cash assistance funds were enough for the government to carry out the work well.

In contrast, the situation in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan is much more severe.

One is a high-risk border area, another is mountainous with few roads, and yet another is experiencing a population explosion, all of which rank last in the country in terms of infrastructure.

At least Xinjiang and Tibet have policy support, but Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Qinghai, Shaanxi, and Gansu really have nothing.

My personal capabilities are limited, and the country's capacity for development is also relatively limited. Therefore, we shouldn't be greedy and try to achieve everything at once. Let's first ensure that the worst-performing areas are brought to near the average level, and then we can gradually improve later.

The people of Northeast China easily understood Fang Xinghe's intentions; Qinghai, Shaanxi, and Gansu were equally satisfied to be ranked in the second tier; Xinjiang and Tibet, being both grand and closed off, didn't have much to say; Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan were overjoyed, needless to say; the remaining provinces were quite envious.

The four provinces understand but regret.

It's not uncommon in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Strange and absurd theories abound in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian.

The central provinces are desperately needing food and their minds are full of begging for alms.

The Hainan man approached and asked: Fang Xinghe, do you want Sanya?
Fang was completely baffled: What are you guys trying to do?

Sanya: Come and build a marine filming base here! We'll approve whatever you want!
Fang Xinghe felt that the director of the investment promotion bureau who came to visit was someone from his hometown, but he couldn't care less about that right now; his mind was full of thoughts about the high-standard teaching building.

Chuan Chuan in 08 is something that cannot and should not be mentioned, so the things he could do were very limited—to rebuild a few more teaching buildings.

He didn't get too involved in all of this himself. He prepared enough money, entrusted things to trustworthy and lovable people, and then went on to continue fighting on his battlefield.

The fact that the money from both personal accounts and company financing has not been spent proves that even after reaching hundreds of millions, the money is still quite durable.

Unfortunately, Star Points are too easily spent.

Previously, I had 5 points left and hadn't figured out where to add them. This time, "The Return of the Condor Heroes" achieved the best results for an Asian drama in the United States, and StarNet's listing pushed him to the fourth richest person, so I gained another 9 points.

A total of 14 Star Points seemed like a huge sum of money, but it turned out to be more troublesome than spending it.

At the level of personal attributes, only three aspects—perception, immunity, and health—are currently unmet.

Appearance: 99 for looks, 99 for figure
体质：力量99、速度99、耐力99、灵敏99、柔韧99
隐藏：协调99、感知90、恢复99、免疫90、健康89
Let's look at the job panel again—

Actors: 99
Director: 92
Screenwriter: 91
Author: 92
Martial artists: 93
The remaining singers, composers, painters, and calligraphers all have 89 points, with more starlight than they can use, and they've maxed out all the professions they can.

In fact, apart from acting skills, Fang Xinghe has never been promoted to any other profession; he has honed his skills on his own.

Thanks to his 99 points of coordination, his martial arts skills improve the fastest. If he had enough time to practice, he would be fully capable of reaching the Martial Saint realm on his own.

However, we really don't have enough time to allocate, so we still have to do a small-scale operation based on the needs.

A small opening doesn't count as an opening, as everyone knows.

Fang Xinghe began to think about what the most urgent task was.

The first is of course the 08 Olympics, the second is to make money by co-producing kung fu films, the third is to establish the "Primordial Era" IP, and it would be best to also regulate the online literature industry.

The actors' skills were basically top-notch, not to mention the director's abilities were more than sufficient.

The Olympic opening ceremony has nothing to do with us, and making action movies doesn't require skills but only imagination, so acting, directing, writing, and singing are all useless.

Playing basketball relies more on physical fitness; a skill level of 90 is sufficient.

From this perspective, the most valuable skill is actually kung fu, which is needed for the opening ceremony performance and even more so for making action movies.

Moreover, both of these are investments that can bring tremendous positive feedback.

Without further hesitation, Fang Xinghe directly clicked six times in the [Martial Artist] class skill [Kung Fu Master], maxing it out to 99 points.

With the remaining 8 points, invest 6 points in the [Health] attribute to raise it to 95, and keep 2 points for later use.

With this, he has taken another step closer to the human limit of the hexagonal shape.

Adding a little something to your health doesn't feel special, because you're already healthy enough.

When you add a touch of kung fu, it's tingly, numb, sour, and refreshing.

Details and essentials of various boxing styles kept popping into my mind, and I was familiar with all eighteen weapons. I gained knowledge from both those I had practiced and those I hadn't.

Expanding the skill details list, the Six Harmonies Spear has 98 points, the Wudang Dragon Flower Sword has 98 points, the Tai Chi Sword has 95 points, and the Two-Handed Saber Technique has 95 points...

In any case, all the sub-skills are at least 95 points, and some, like the Fang Family Dragon Flower Fist, are directly at the maximum level.

【Kung Fu Master】is a broad skill set, not a specific skill.

The biggest advantage of adding a little bit to it is that it directly establishes a perception of the ultimate level of kung fu, rather than maximizing all the specific martial arts you have mastered.

It's alright, you can easily master any martial art when you practice again later.

What's particularly interesting is that once the Kung Fu Master skill reaches 99 points, a new skill called "Combat Weapons" automatically appears under the "Martial Artist" profession panel, alongside the already existing "Mixed Martial Arts" skill on the children's table.

Fang Xinghe casually used his Star Points to raise both skills to 89 points, and immediately understood the differences between these major terms.

Kung Fu masters tend to favor comprehension and learning abilities.

Mixed martial arts is a form of unarmed combat based on modern sports rules.

The most retro and illegal combat equipment is the most comprehensive guide to weapon use, which is entirely aimed at killing the opponent.

It talks about the blade edge, the tendons of the blade, the penetrating power of the spear and the tearing power of its rotation, but it doesn't talk about techniques or routines.

It told Fang Xinghe that killing someone with a sword is a very troublesome and skillful thing. The difficulty of stabbing someone three inches into the throat and getting away unscathed is far greater than the effort of thrusting and stabbing with a spear.

However, killing with a sword is still more efficient than killing with bare hands. Even a thin piece of iron weighing a little over a pound, once mastered, can be used to lightly slit the enemy's neck, at most allowing them to launch half a counterattack before they bleed to death.

"This skill is just too out of place."

Fang Xinghe muttered something under his breath, then began searching the room for the sword.

Anyway, practicing won't break the law, right?
I found the sword and swung it twice. My power was soaring and my sword sense was soaring, but I was even more annoyed than before—there was no target, and it was such a waste of effort to stab at empty air.

The quasi-martial saint immediately decided: the next film must include a segment on cold weapons within a modern firearms battlefield!
Action movies that don't present any significant challenges in terms of filming, if they don't push the action to the extreme and make it incredibly cool, how can they differentiate themselves from those amateur Hollywood bastards?

These films that collaborated with Hollywood were primarily about making money, with suppressing the audience being secondary.

I want to make all the so-called action stars in the world never dare to claim they are good at action again!

I want to make all action movie fans around the world pick and choose among all the action movies on the market when they can't see me!

Other standards are beyond my control and influence, but in the realm of action, my standard is the only one.

(End of this chapter)