The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Time flies, and it's already late August.

Chen An'an is thoroughly enjoying her work at her Anle Investment Fund.

She also sought investment from acquaintances first, but these acquaintances were usually introduced by employees within the company.

This can be considered a kind of corporate benefit; anyone introduced by an internal employee can get some investment from her, more or less.

Some people wanted to play dirty tricks, but Chen An'an's standard was very simple: you could lose all her money according to the plan, but if you wanted to trick her into putting her money in your own pocket, you would be wrong.

She can easily get you thrown in jail and sing your lament, and then fire the employee who introduced you.

Although Chen An'an is kind, she still has her own absolute principles when it comes to this kind of thing.

Anyone who dares to openly deceive her will be subject to the most severe legal sanctions.

I'm about to start high school, and the workload will be a bit heavier. If I don't take some strict measures, who knows how much trouble the company will cause.

There are very few people in the whole country who can manage such a large company at her age.

She still cherished this opportunity. When she returned home, her mother, Song Yanxi, was already preparing her luggage for school.

In her first year of high school, she lived at school and couldn't go home every day. Fortunately, Chen An'an had adapted to all of this in junior high school.

The school isn't too far from their home; it only takes about half an hour by car.

"An'an, once you get to school, you won't be able to eat whatever you want like you do at home. You'll have to get used to it gradually, okay?"

"Mom, it's not like I haven't been to boarding school before, I don't need any reminders!"

"I'm just worried that you'll suffer if you go."

"I'm not capable of enduring hardship."

Chen An'an packed some of her essentials, including her laptop, so that her parents could take over the company after she went to school.

She'll only look after things during holidays.

"Is there anything else you need to buy when you start school?"

"No, I don't need anything."

In the evening, the whole family went to the restaurant on the third floor for dinner. Not only their family, but also the younger sister Chen Qi and the older sister's family were there.

I'll be starting high school soon, and it would be a lie to say I'm not excited.

Chen An'an wasn't as flamboyant as Er Pi Ya; she was very low-key when she went to high school.

I only brought a few simple things, and the dormitory didn't have many special conditions.

Four girls lived in one room; three were locals, and only one was from out of town.

Chen An'an greeted them happily. If nothing unexpected happened, these would be her most important high school roommates this year.

As for Erpiya, she is still in fifth grade.

Chen Lu, who had been listless, has now officially started first grade.

Time flies like an arrow. On November 30, 2022, the epidemic situation in Guangzhou was largely relaxed.

This means that the three-year illness is finally coming to an end. Some people are cheering, while others are worried.

History rolls on, and no one can stop it.

The expected surge in spending after the restrictions were lifted did not materialize; instead, everyone seemed to prefer saving money.

Whether it's traditional or high-end consumption, prices have been falling again and again.

When the three-year illness finally ended, it didn't bring relief, but rather even bigger problems.

Tang Jing, along with his secretariat and the entire research institute of Tengying Economic Research, were working on a worst-case scenario plan.

What do you mean?

Everyone had hoped that things would get better after the illness ended.

People are working and spending normally, and are still full of hope as before.

The result... was a bolt from the blue.

An even more severe wave of flexible employment, including salary cuts, college graduates looking for jobs, and unemployment, is befalling everyone.

It's fair to say that if the illness doesn't pass, people can still blame everything on this aspect, always feeling that once it's over, everything will be alright.

But when she actually went there, she found that jobs were becoming increasingly difficult to find. Even working overtime day and night, she still faced the risk of companies going bankrupt at any time and layoffs. Ultimately, the biggest reason for this situation was the problems with the real estate market.

If a house becomes unsellable, the resulting series of consequences will be absolutely beyond imagination.

The impact of this is more than a hundred times more severe than the illness itself.

The people at Tengying Group weren't too worried, but the other smaller companies were having a much harder time.

Tang Jing, wearing high heels, walked clattering into the CEO's office. She handed Chen Pingsheng a market research form and said:

“Boss, over 80% of the traditional companies we invested in before that are not yet listed are now facing serious losses. President Chu wants to sell all these small projects in a package. If they cannot be sold, we will not invest further.”

Starting a business is risky, and so is investing. The core of the Dream Fund has always been to support small and medium-sized enterprises.

At least tens or hundreds of billions have been invested in this sector. Some have succeeded, but most are facing severe market problems.

The Dream Fund also needs to start cutting losses, targeting small projects that haven't shown any improvement in one or two years.

Pack them all up and throw them out.

Previously, most people still had expectations, but now that the epidemic is over, no one is spending money, which has made everyone realize the truth.

"It's up to her to decide."

Yuanmeng Investment Fund has now become a well-known investment fund in China, and it was able to break even as early as last year.

It can even generate a considerable profit.

Its profits mainly come from listing projects or investing in shares of listed companies.

If it doesn't reach the point of going public, then the investment is considered a failure.

Of course, some companies that are doing well can also sell their shares before going public.

"Boss, should we reduce the number of new hires we're recruiting for next year?"

"The number of slots definitely needs to be reduced."

Chen Pingsheng said, "In the next few years, the group will not expand much. Except for the new energy sector, the other sectors will focus on maintaining the status quo. Being able to steadily maintain the status quo for the next four or five years is more important than anything else."

He's not the only one doing this; most companies are now focused on maintaining the status quo.

What does this mean?

The number of vacant positions in the group will decrease each year, so it will no longer be like before, when it recruited thousands of people every time.

Finding a job is absolutely hellish for college students these days, after spending hundreds of thousands of yuan and working hard for more than ten years.

But on graduation day, they found that they couldn't even find a decent job that matched their basic skills.

It's hard to say whether this is a tragedy for college students or for parents.

If possible, Chen Pingsheng would like to recruit tens of thousands of people each time and then give them high welfare and high treatment.

But reality no longer allows it.

The entire Tencent Ying Group includes the new energy and big health sectors, as well as Tencent You Media in the short video field.

Other listed companies aren't much better off.

Bobo Milk Tea can make a little money, but it's still pitifully little.

Boiling Sheep suffers losses year after year, and the prospects for other snacks like Run Fast, Deer Antler Coffee, Tengying Entertainment, and Yateng Short Drama are also not optimistic.

He can't recruit too many people anymore.

There was a lot of bad news, but also some unexpected good news.

After experiencing its slump, Nvidia has made a strong comeback.

Its market value has risen from a low of over 300 billion US dollars to over 600 billion US dollars.

He personally owns nearly $40 billion in this stock.

I'll never lack money for anything.

However, Chen Pingsheng still hoped to resolve the issue of Boiling Sheep as soon as possible, and not let it continue to suffer losses like this.

He also lost interest in running a low-margin catering business.

(End of this chapter)