The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

The group has dismissed another vice president of human resources.

The big boss personally fired him, which caused quite a stir and was even reported to the entire group.

This serves as a reminder to everyone.

The happiest people were undoubtedly the two college girls who bumped into Chen Pingsheng.

They received 50 yuan in whistleblowing rewards from the group that same day. Their phones rang, and they almost thought it was a scam.

Fortunately, Tencent Pictures called immediately.

As for the vice president's younger brother, he fared much worse. After returning home, he was not only severely scolded by his sister-in-law, but she also severed ties with him.

As for his parents, it goes without saying that they were able to live in Shanghai entirely thanks to his brother's efforts.

Now look what's happened, he's lost his job, and it's clearly stated in the company's announcement that it's all because he kept showing off at school.

He even used it to seduce girlfriends.

His brother was fired, and he was kicked out of the house by his sister-in-law. No matter how his parents pleaded for him, it was no use.

……

Time flies, and before we knew it, it was late November.

The group's autumn campus recruitment is almost over, and we're just waiting for December.

The group will welcome many new university interns, which will undoubtedly add new vitality to the headquarters.

December is almost here, and another year is almost over.

Chen Pingsheng even took his private jet to Guangzhou, mainly to check out Tencent Media.

Every December, Tengyou Media holds its own Tengyou Night.

This is also the grandest event in the entire online celebrity circle.

Every year around this time, at least half of the top internet celebrities attend the Tencent Night event in December.

Chen Pingsheng was certainly not there to participate in this kind of activity.

He's only here for a visit and inspection.

Tencent Media has stood out this year, with its stock price exceeding 1800 billion.

After completing the independent listing of No. 9 Warehouse, it also completed the packaged listing of Tengyou Supermarket.

The total annual profit will not be less than 20 billion.

The stock price is still soaring, and it may not be long before one Tencent Media becomes two Tencent Entertainment companies.

This is one of the few great things for the group this year.

Zhang Wanyi also discovered a huge business opportunity from No. 9 Warehouse and Tengyou Supermarket.

If online celebrities only rely on selling products, then they are only earning the profit margin from the sales.

While this interest rate spread isn't bad, it's still much lower than stock market returns.

At the simplest level, she could rely on live-streaming sales while simultaneously investing in startups.

Once these companies are taken public, they will generate at least hundreds of millions or even billions in revenue.

Chen Pingsheng did the same thing in the early days, only he used Tencent Entertainment.

Now, Zhang Wanyi, the secretary, has simply replicated this method at Tengyou Investment Fund.

He personally holds a 30% stake in Tengyou Fund, and this year is still in the development stage.

In two more years, I will have a very stable income.

The influencer economy has been booming since 16 and continued to rise rapidly until 2020.

To exaggerate a bit, TikTok has become Tencent's biggest competitor.

Tencent treated Weishi like its own son, and Chen Pingsheng invested five or six hundred million yuan in it, but the result was nothing.

They lost everything, leaving not a trace.

Douyin has never had any plans to go public, so he can't cash out his 3.5% stake.

If it goes public, its market value will definitely not be less than one trillion.

Chen Pingsheng parked his private jet at the airport, while he leisurely sat at Tengyou headquarters, drinking tea and tapping on a small table.

Most of the employees here are online celebrities, but he has no intention of meeting them, nor is it necessary.

Winters in Guangzhou are quite comfortable; a light jacket is enough.

Zhang Wanyi was dressed in a well-fitting blue suit. "Uncle Chen, you're not in a hurry to go back these next couple of days, are you?"

"I'm just here for a quick look, I'll be leaving tonight."

"That's a pity. I know a farm that has particularly delicious food, and I'd like to invite you to try it."

"Maybe next time, I came in a hurry this time."

Chen Pingsheng then asked her, "I heard you found a boyfriend. What does he do?"

"He is a senior of mine. I only met him at the class reunion this year. He has been starting his own business in Guangzhou, which is also in the internet industry."

"Hmm... You've been with me for so many years, and now Tengyou Media has really taken off. When you get married, I'll give you a big red envelope."

"Thank you, Uncle Chen." Zhang Wanyi said happily, "How about I call him out tonight, Uncle Chen, and you can take a look at me too?"

"There's no need for that. I trust your judgment isn't too bad."

Zhang Wanyi certainly has good judgment; the main reason is that as her business status rises, the people she knows naturally change.

Take this senior, for example. He used to be a prominent figure at school and the president of the alumni association.

He is now the founder of a company. He may not have a huge net worth, but he certainly has several billion.

That's already quite good; as for Zhang Wanyi herself, it goes without saying.

Someone at her level shouldn't even dream of it without a net worth of several billion.

While there are no specific rules about matching social status, people still tend to choose partners based on their income.

Whether it was Bai Xin, who followed him the earliest, or Chu Qiuyan and the others, they are all married now.

Given this situation, Zhang Wanyi's time won't be far off; it'll probably be by the end of this year.

In the afternoon, the two had a meal alone, and then Chen Pingsheng returned to Shanghai.

The reason I rushed back so quickly is that something happened in Shanghai; there was an outbreak at my child's school.

All students are on holiday, and it's pretty much the same for Erpiya's side.

In the summer, because of the high temperatures, the disease is not in its peak period, but in the winter it is completely different.

As soon as the weather gets cold, this thing completely erupts again.

Erpiya didn't care; she liked it when school was on holiday every day. It's just that she can't go to big companies anymore.

Wearing three masks with her hands behind her back at home every day, that's something else.

As for Chen An'an, there's even less to say.

She still loves learning, but her younger sister interrupts her all the time.

Erpiya, having nothing better to do, went to her sister's room to fart, and was chased and beaten by Chen An'an.

The two sisters can have their squabbles at home, but it's also a problem at the company.

There have been quite a few cases in Shanghai recently, and many people are staying home and waiting for it to pass.

There's nothing we can do about it; we can only wait for it to pass.

Kingsoft headquarters also simply announced that countless people would work from home.

Or they work in company apartments or high-end residential buildings.

This is practically like putting us on holiday.

Although the illness has been going on for more than a year, it has never been this serious in Shanghai.

It felt like only a few days had passed, and everyone was talking about this thing, treating it like the plague.

Even when you're eating a meal or talking to someone, you have to wear a mask.

Even the most bustling mahjong parlors in the neighborhood, or places where people chat and drink tea, are almost deserted.

The weather had simply turned cold, and everyone was on high alert to avoid getting sick.

Chen Pingsheng was still at the group headquarters, and he came to work as usual.

Firstly, he was protected by the luck of the powerful old man with the golden finger, and secondly, he knew the nature of the illness!
It won't kill you, but it will severely damage your immune system.

As for those seedlings and such, he wouldn't let his family members get them.

The reason is hard to explain.

Tang Jing, the secretary, is also wearing a mask. Since the headquarters implemented working from home, efficiency has dropped by more than half.

Fortunately, maintaining the group's normal operations is not a major problem; it's just that the losses in the traditional sectors are becoming increasingly severe.

The catering industry definitely accounts for the majority of this.

"Boss, how long is this going to take?"

"Ten days to half a month, who knows?"

Chen Pingsheng said, "Shanghai has never been this serious before. This thing is spreading too fast. I estimate it won't be able to return to normal for at least half a month."

Tang Jing blinked her big eyes twice, looking utterly helpless.

"The finance department was preparing to draft this year's employee year-end bonus plan, but I'm afraid it will be canceled now."

Why cancel it?

Chen Pingsheng shook his head and said, "To cancel all employees' year-end bonuses for such a small trouble, our group is not that fragile."

Tang Jing knew the big boss meant well, but she couldn't help but say, "There's nothing we can do about it. Actually, many employees are aware of this. It's already quite an achievement that they can still receive their full salary and benefits. Most employees can accept not getting a year-end bonus this year."

"They can accept it, but only because they don't want the group to go bankrupt and be unable to pay salaries."

Chen Pingsheng said, "But we really haven't reached the point where we can't afford employee year-end bonuses. In fact, the group still has tens of billions in cash on hand, as you know."

With so many listed companies, he had already announced a reduction in unnecessary investments and stockpiled cash to weather the storm.

He had already secured 20 billion yuan as venture capital at the end of last year, so this is just a minor ripple.

If they really use this as an excuse to cancel employee benefits and year-end bonuses, then there's absolutely no problem with it.

But the truth is, Tengying Group is not short of money.

It can even be said with certainty that it is definitely the private enterprise with the most abundant cash flow in China.

In addition to the company's tens of billions of dollars in reserve risk funds, he can also personally cash out two hundred billion US dollars at any time through funds on Wall Street overseas.

If this is an excuse to withhold employee benefits and year-end bonuses, then all private enterprises in China might as well stop paying them.

His funds are completely different from the 300 billion that Xu had once proclaimed.

At its simplest point, Tengying Group has no debt.

With just his domestic commercial real estate holdings, he could easily mobilize hundreds of billions of yuan.

There is absolutely no risk involved.

However, the current situation is indeed making it difficult for traditional sectors to operate.

Tang Jing said, "When I went downstairs, I heard many employees discussing whether there would be no year-end bonus this year, so I came to talk to you, the big boss."

“It’s normal for employees to care about these things, after all, they rely on their year-end bonus to save more money throughout the year.”

After a pause, Chen Pingsheng added, "You can send a notification in the group chat that there will be no changes to the year-end bonuses and benefits. Let them focus on doing their jobs without worry."

Employees often fall into a misconception: if the market isn't doing so well, will they be laying off staff or doing other optimizations?

Chen Pingsheng wanted to say that this was completely overthinking things; his core business had long since shifted away from those traditional sectors.

Most of his energy was devoted to investments, including in future technologies.

Tang Jing did know some of it, such as the fact that the big boss recently spent 40 billion yuan in cash to buy 1% of Google's shares.

They also reduced their holdings in Nvidia by 1.5%.

The main reason for doing this is that Google has invested heavily in AI, and its AI technology is very advanced.

As long as it possesses this core technology for the future, its stock price will not stop at $700 billion.

If the big boss buys it now, he might make two or three times his initial investment in the next few years.

He makes tens or hundreds of billions of yuan with a single leap.

Even knowing the big boss's investment direction, Tang Jing didn't dare to follow suit.

Too little investment is pointless, too much investment is unaffordable.

The big boss has always invested in industrial funds, knowing that the future belongs to AI.

AI is the true core technology of the future, and investments in this sector often reach tens of billions.

He now owns shares worth 350 billion US dollars, which alone would place him among the top ten richest people in China.

Of course, these are all still the ones that are out in the open.

This year's richest man is still Jack Ma, whose personal wealth has been revealed to be 4300 billion yuan.

The second largest is Tencent, with 3700 billion.

The personal wealth of both Ma and Ma is mainly reflected in the stock prices of Alibaba and Tencent.

The third and fourth are Mr. Zhong, the porter of nature and the water seller.

Besides selling water, he also owns a pharmaceutical company, which is also very large.

The fourth-ranked company is also a pharmaceutical company, which shows that the pharmaceutical industry has truly exploded.

Anyone who bought pharmaceutical stocks in the past few years has basically made a fortune.

Unfortunately, Chen Pingsheng looked down on these listed pharmaceutical companies in China.

He would rather invest in the big health industry himself than speculate in these pharmaceutical companies.

Tang Jing himself bought some pharmaceutical stocks and made a considerable profit.

These things were no secret to her at all; the group's economic research institute released all sorts of industry reports every month.

If you can read, you can't go wrong buying what's listed on that list.

"I'll send it right away." Tang Jing added, "Boss, Liu Yifei wants to come see you and ask if you've seen it!"

"She came to see me?"

Chen Pingsheng didn't know what was wrong with her. Liu Yifei was a quiet person, a breath of fresh air in the entertainment industry, and her family background was also very good.

The last time I saw her was at a grand event in the entertainment industry; it doesn't seem like that was long ago.

Chen Pingsheng asked her to come over. He was free all day and hadn't made any important appointments or had any major projects to attend to.

When Liu Yifei arrived, she was still wearing a traditional cheongsam from the Republican era, and with her looks and figure...

Even dressed like a countrywoman, she couldn't hide it.

She didn't come here for anything important.

One is that she became the spokesperson for Chen Qi's self-created cheongsam brand, which is essentially a free endorsement.

Secondly, she had chosen a great script from the group that she really wanted to film.

(End of this chapter)