The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

It was already 10 p.m. when I got home.

Chen An'an returned to her large room, where the Bund and Huangpu River were visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

This is the main reason why their family likes living here, and it's the only thing that the Tang Palace Villa can't compare to.

My father will be forty in a few years; time really flies.

No matter how much you don't want to grow up, time still flies by.

Perhaps the only thing Chen An'an can do is to grow up well.

Chen Pingsheng also returned to his room. His wife, for some reason, had become obsessed with aerobics at such a young age.

All day long, he keeps saying that if he doesn't take care of himself, he'll get old.

This is clearly what she does, okay?

Even after they moved to the larger apartment upstairs, the rooms were still much bigger.

As soon as the automatic curtains opened, the night view of Shanghai shone in through the moonlight.

Chen Pingsheng said to her, "You've been dancing for over an hour now, haven't you?"

"almost."

Song Yanxi has already finished showering and is doing some light exercise and yoga following the instructions on the 100-inch TV.

"You've been driving for Didi for months now, and you're still not tired of it!"

"Hmm... I'm getting a bit annoyed. I'm thinking of switching to a different, more ordinary job."

"Is it really necessary? He's such a big CEO, why does he still have to pretend to be an ordinary person every day? Doesn't he get tired of it?!"

“It is absolutely necessary.”

Chen Pingsheng said, "There's something I need to remind you. Things are getting a bit skewed over there. Many people are transferring large sums of assets out of the country like this. I don't care about your own money, but don't move it all out of the country."

"I understand." Song Yanxi asked in surprise, "Is something really going to happen?"

"I don't know, just remember to keep a low profile in everything you do."

Chen Pingsheng said, "We don't need others to treat us as ordinary people, but we should never think of ourselves as superior to others."

Song Yanxi stopped dancing, paused, and pulled back the covers to prepare for sleep.

The outlook for many industries, apart from short videos, is not very optimistic recently.

Even her Shuiyun Pavilion was greatly affected, not to mention other industries.

Traditional industries will only face increasing difficulties if they don't integrate with short videos or the internet.

There is nothing we can do about it.

Even Chen Pingsheng himself couldn't think of any good solutions, and even his large economic research institute was extremely pessimistic about the situation.

To this day, Tengying Group has been focusing on reducing investment and maintaining sufficient cash flow.

In order to prepare for the possible economic turning point.

Michelle Song already knew about this.

Apart from her Shuiyunjian project, the entire Tencent Film Group has not made any major investments in the past two years.

The only one that remained unchanged was Tengfei New Energy.

For their family, Tengfei New Energy is not just about making money; it also symbolizes many special meanings.

At least in the past, it would have been very unlikely that Chen Pingsheng would have received an invitation from Tsinghua or Peking University.

Now, whenever there are top-tier business conferences or political and business forums in China, they send him invitations immediately.

Whether he goes or not is one thing, whether he receives the money or not is another.

Without this investment of over 100 billion, we wouldn't have achieved our current prestigious status.

The reason for the major changes on Lao Ma's side, no matter how many reasons there are, is that the internet is no longer supported by the state.

Back when the call for mass innovation and entrepreneurship was put forward, Jack Ma was riding high.

That was also the period when BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) was at its most powerful.

It's a pity that the internet has been supported for so long; it's unrealistic to say it has made no social contribution. But to say it has made a huge contribution is also nonsense from the top-level perspective.

Because this thing has killed too many physical industries.

Look at those physical stores now, how many people still go shopping there every day?
As for what Old Ma himself said, he provided eight million jobs for society.

Create 8 million jobs.

No one doubts that e-commerce has created so many jobs, but it is also true that many people in the real economy have lost their jobs because of e-commerce.

Another crucial point is that many overseas countries are restricting the excessive development of e-commerce.

The reason for this is self-evident.

To put it bluntly, Old Ma went from being a legend to being on the verge of collapse.

It has a lot to do with the industrial path taken by the higher authorities. When the top level supports your industry, it can make you a legend.

Once the support stops, it's not you, Old Ma, who created the era, but the era that created you, Old Ma.

Many people understand the relationships involved, but the key is that people tend to get carried away and lose their sense of self-importance while playing the game.

This is something Chen Pingsheng often says: you can do anything, just don't get carried away.

While every industry may change with industrial policies, only one industry can consistently receive government support.

That is the technology industry.

This thing requires a large investment, carries extremely high competition risks, and is not benchmarked against domestic industries, but rather against overseas tech giants.

If you want to make a name for yourself in this industry, forget about the restrictions from above; they'd practically lift you up to take off.

Even at critical moments, it can mobilize the entire nation's resources to help you overcome difficulties.

Only one private enterprise in Shenzhen has truly achieved this.

It's only right that they deserve to be respected.

Chen Pingsheng's future goal has always been to develop in that direction; new energy is just the first step.

If you can't even get the first step right, then don't even think about anything else.

Song Yanxi would lift the covers to sleep. The two would sometimes talk late into the night, and sometimes they would each do their own thing, and even sleep in separate rooms.

Just do whatever makes you comfortable. Isn't that what happens when you have money?
The children each sleep in their own large room, not to mention them.

Chen Pingsheng would occasionally plan his new Jinshan super villa, which cost him 4 billion yuan.

Although the overall target is only twelve floors, the huge investment will cover almost all the living facilities he wants.

For example, a heated swimming pool of over 1,000 square meters, and an open-air courtyard on the roof—he wanted to build one similar to the one in Beijing.

I still sometimes miss the days when I lived in a courtyard house in Beijing.

This time, building it on the top floor provides a view and other advantages that are infinitely better than the previous one.

Once this super villa building is completed, it will probably rank among the top five villas in Shanghai.

Even in Hong Kong, it would be top-tier; I can't wait to try it.

For some reason, no matter how rich he was, he was still very fond of the place he lived in and always wanted to build a better one.

Perhaps it's because they couldn't afford a house before.

He's lost interest in being a Didi driver and is thinking about switching to another ordinary job.

I can't take up too much time, so delivering food is out of the question.

One was cold, and the other was afraid of dying.

Hiring a car and riding a motorcycle is extremely unsafe.

If even free and ordinary jobs like food delivery or Didi driver aren't viable, then we have to think of other options.

Song Yanxi nudged him restlessly with her little bottom. She was clearly asking for a beating at night.

(End of this chapter)