The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Spring is here, flowers are in bloom, and March has arrived.

After the temperature rose to the teens every day, Chen Pingsheng added a thermal undershirt that no one could tell was worn under his handsome shirt.

His sister-in-law, Song Wu, returned to Beijing even earlier than him. According to Liu Fen, her sister caught her in her room and scolded her for a whole morning.

Michelle Song was so angry that she used Tencent Video's resources to completely delete all the photos of her dancing taken at that entertainment industry event.

One of them is not allowed to be shown to the public.

Seriously, this is the first time Song Wu has ever dressed so revealingly.

Chen Pingsheng, who secretly reported the incident, pretended to know nothing.

He doesn't know the answer to anyone who asks him.

After Liu Yifei signed with Tencent Film Studio, he has now assembled three of the most talented actresses among the "85 Flowers" (a term referring to actresses born in 1985).

The other two are already married, so it doesn't matter whether they sign or not.

Last year, so many big-budget TV dramas were invested in, and most of them were scheduled for the summer season.

Also no one.

However, starting in March, a number of films wholly owned by Tencent Pictures were released one after another.

March 7th is the date for Chen Sicheng's "Detective Chinatown 1".

I invested 80 million last year.

The May Day release is Shen Teng's "Hello Mr. Billionaire".

Following closely behind in the summer movie season is Chen Sicheng's "The Vanished".

Unbeknownst to many, Tencent Film Entertainment is poised to dominate the film market in the first half of 2016.

I'm really looking forward to it. After this wave, Tencent Entertainment's stock price could potentially reach 50 billion.

Given these conditions, does he really need his sister-in-law to wear a low-cut dress to attract attention?
Even if you stood on that platform dressed in rags, not a single person would dare say a word against it.

They'll just find different ways to flatter you.

Song Wu's performance in the entertainment industry is actually quite decent, after all, she has been playing minor roles for two years.

Two years later, at her birthday party, Chen Pingsheng finally acknowledged her identity to the public.

This also means that she can rampage through the entertainment industry with the Tencent Pictures label.

Anyone who dares to sexually harass her will be immediately blacklisted.

After Song Wu came out of her sister's room listlessly, Song Yanxi was still full of energy.

I wish I could drag her in and yell at her for another half hour.

To be honest, it's quite satisfying to catch your own sister and scold her as much as you want.

"Brother-in-law."

Song Wu called to him, but Chen Pingsheng pretended not to know anything. "What have you done now that your sister dragged you home for a scolding?"

"Nothing."

Song Wu was so embarrassed. She had clearly seen her brother-in-law before, and since she was so revealing, he must have seen everything.

"Have you been acting a lot lately?"

"My sister doesn't want me to take on too many roles; she wants me to rest at home for a while."

When Song Wu came to the capital, she also stayed in this courtyard house, a large courtyard with four courtyards and so many rooms.

There's simply not enough room for everyone.

"It's good to take a break for a while."

Chen Pingsheng lay down on his rocking chair, ready to take a nap, when Song Yanxi dragged him into the room and scolded him.

The main point is that he saw his sister-in-law acting like this, but he just didn't do anything about it.

These are all just her excuses.

She thought she couldn't hear it.

It's obvious they're implying that he attended such a conference and must have had a great time.

She subtly hinted that he should go there less often in the future; women really are all petty.

If she gets the chance, she can chime in on you about these things.

"Xiao Wu is your younger sister, and I'm her brother-in-law, so it's not appropriate for me to interfere too much," Chen Pingsheng quickly explained.

“Why are you so hard to manage? I’ve found her a few suitable families. Come and help me pick one out.”

Song Yanxi took out some photos from the drawer and introduced them to Chen Pingsheng one by one.

The first one was 29 years old and fairly good-looking.

His family is in the real estate business; they're not as well-off as his family, but they still have assets worth several billion.

The second family owned a liquor business and were quite well-off.

The third family produces daily necessities and also has assets worth over a billion yuan.

Chen Pingsheng asked her curiously, "Where did you get so many rich kids of similar age?"

Song Yanxi rolled her eyes at him. "I started looking last year. These are all clients of Shuiyunjian. After they heard that my younger sister was still single, they rushed to propose marriage. I've been picking and choosing and these are the ones left."

"They're all second-generation rich kids."

"Why not?"

Song Yanxi said, "My mother, Liu Fen, said that last year when Chen Qi got married, our family spent more than 100 million yuan. This year, we absolutely cannot marry someone who has nothing."

Chen Pingsheng thought about it and agreed, but he felt that his younger sister was quite happy now, even though Hu Lin was out of place in the Education Bureau.

He was soon reassigned to a grassroots position, but his simplicity and honesty remained genuine.

You can't ignore his sincerity towards Chen Qi just because he's not tactful enough.

At least the couple's relationship is very good now.

A person like Hu Lin is only suited to be a good teacher for ordinary people.

Even if you give him a chance to go to the Education Bureau, he will be quickly rejected because of the substantial gifts he offers.

When others visit a leader's home, they always mention golden apples.

He's so well-off, and his wife is so rich, he's going to buy some real apples.

If your leader won't let you go to the grassroots level, then who will he let go to the grassroots level?

"Alright, just let Xiaowu take her time choosing."

“I’m going to set her up on a blind date today. There’s no one reliable in the entertainment industry. I plan to make her leave the entertainment industry after she gets engaged.”

"You'd better ask her what she thinks."

Chen Pingsheng said, "Your sister really loves acting, and she's studied it for so many years. If you suddenly ask her to give it up, she definitely won't listen to you."

"Okay, we'll talk about this later."

Song Yanxi took her sister to a blind date. In wealthy families like this, blind dates usually involve choosing someone with similar social standing. It's all about matching social status.

Even if Song Wu was unwilling, she had no choice but to go with her sister.

She was given the opportunity to date freely, but all the men who came to her were after her background.

If that's the case, then what's the point of looking for it?

It's best to settle down and find someone from a similar social standing to your family.

……

Chen Pingsheng was too lazy to care about his sister-in-law's blind dates; he would just go and see her when she found someone.

No wonder his wife wanted to keep Song Wu in the capital for a while; it turns out she was arranging blind dates for her.

March.

Spring recruitment at universities is about to begin.

As Tencent Pictures further expands its offline market, they need to recruit another batch of interns to bring in fresh blood.

Bai Xin came over with a recruitment plan for him to sign. This year, no brilliant idea has proposed to pay interns only 2,500 yuan a month.

Chen Pingsheng glanced at the situation and realized that as Tenghui Department Store expanded its market to Shenzhen, at least a team of two hundred people would need to be added to the Guangdong region.

In addition, a group office was established in Hong Kong, and two teams were transferred there as well.

After approval by the Human Resources Department, the total number of new recruits will be approximately 1,200.

Not all of them will be in Beijing; some will need to be transferred to Shanghai and Guangdong.

"Tell Qiuyan to take the lead in this university recruitment drive, and also help her arrange a few speeches."

Chu Qiuyan is now extremely famous; whenever she gives a lecture at a university, the venue is always packed.

"I'll go notify you right away."

Bai Xin pulled out a cup of Deer Antler Coffee's new milk coffee from the bag. "Uncle, this is a new Italian milk coffee that Qin Xue and Qiu Yan jointly developed. They delivered it to you as soon as possible."

Chen Pingsheng took two bites.

The coffee was too bitter, but the milk was fragrant and smooth. Combining the two seemed pretty good.

I took a sip, and the taste was alright.

"How did they make this?"

"This is made by blending espresso with rich milk."

Bai Xin said, "I heard them say that this taste is the optimal taste that they finally determined after making 100,000 cups."

100,000 cups sounds exaggerated.

But when you realize that the entire milk coffee R&D team has over two hundred people, it's not an exaggeration at all.

The development of any new product requires the collection of customer data and taste analysis.

Only then can specific solutions be provided.

The R&D team has been established for more than half a month, and this is the first new product they have come up with: milk coffee.

“This will definitely be more popular with young people than traditional bitter coffee. Let them promote it in Shanghai first, and once it’s confirmed to be well-received by the market, then we can promote it nationwide.”

The main reason for developing milk coffee is to differentiate itself from Starbucks in terms of positioning.

Without its own unique characteristics, Deer Antler Coffee will always be following in others' footsteps.

With thousands of directly operated stores, it's only natural that they should have their own positioning and unique characteristics by now.

The new product definitely won't be sold for 15 yuan again; setting it at 8 yuan is the most appropriate.

It's neither too high nor too low; young people can accept it.

It costs about the same as a cup of milk tea.

"Bai Xin, have you noticed lately that you seem to have a lot more work than usual?"

"Uncle, you've finally found it."

Bai Xin could no longer work like a leisurely person as before. With the group having grown to this point, and the big boss only having her as his secretary, all the important documents or things that needed to be signed would be sent to her.

She has to travel between Beijing and Shanghai, and she's already completely overwhelmed.

"Uncle, I think you should set up a secretariat. This secretariat should have at least three people."

Three female secretaries?

Chen Pingsheng is often busy with various matters, so it would be good to establish a professional secretariat.

But what kind of people should we hire?
After all, they're all by his side; it wouldn't do for them to be too unfamiliar.

"Alright, send out a notice within the group that the secretarial team can only be recruited internally."

Those who can become secretaries to big bosses hold very special positions within the group.

Bai Xin is still a suitable candidate; there is a suitable one among the new interns who joined last year.

Another one is a female graduate student who has been working in the group for two years.

He has a high level of education, is very flexible, and works extremely quickly.

First, we'll bring those two up, and then they'll need to undergo a period of training.

The main thing is to be thoroughly familiar with the boss's habits.

From small things like what kind of tea he usually likes to drink, to big things like being able to handle emergencies when the boss is not around, the secretary needs to be able to respond quickly.

In short, being a boss's secretary is a privilege in terms of both social status and income.

Both can be described as leaping across social classes in one step.

She arrived early and did all sorts of jobs. Before she knew it, it had been less than two years.

House, car, money, I have it all.

Things are different now; the group now has over 100,000 employees.

If you want to be a boss's secretary, a certain level of education is a must.

To enter graduate school, students must be top-tier academics in English and several major subjects.

Besides these, one's appearance must score at least nine out of ten.

There's no way around it; the boss is still at the top of the entertainment industry.

His secretary must be absolutely gorgeous.

These two points alone have already eliminated 99.99% of the people.

The remaining little bit requires high emotional intelligence, competence, and a flexible mind—a combination of factors.

There wasn't much left.

(End of this chapter)