What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 401 Direction
Guo Chuan came to Lingang this time in response to the call of the Silicon Carbon Group.

His company, which ventured into the air suspension industry, has already established itself in Lingang, but he still spends much of his time working in Changchun, where he has a stronger network of contacts and resources. Moreover, he is also conducting joint research and development with universities there.

When Silicon Carbon Group tentatively proposed forming a patent alliance, Guo Chuan was initially hesitant, but after discussing it with his father, he made up his mind.

"Oh? A patent alliance? That Yu Xing has quite the ambition."

“It’s feasible, that’s a good thing. Although he’s using the name of a range-extended vehicle, aren’t many of the research and development aspects the same as those for electric vehicles?”

"The industry doesn't care about range-extended vehicles, and this alliance probably won't pay much attention to them either. However, there will definitely be policy support for electric vehicles. This is a good opportunity for industrial upgrading and competition."

Guo Chuan's extensive network and resources were largely due to the influence of his grandfather, so he naturally trusted his judgment implicitly.

As for President Yu's ambition, to use a better word, it's called aspiration.

Guo Chuanlai had a face-to-face talk with the Silicon Carbon Group and discovered that there were five other companies with the same aspirations: Huichuan Technology, Jingjin Electric, Zhibo, Yangjie Technology, and Aluminum-based New Materials.

He knew exactly three of them, and the name of the aluminum-based new materials company clearly indicated that it was researching aluminum alloy materials.

"Mr. Yu, what does Yangjie Technology do?" Guo Chuan asked Yu Xing directly.

“Yangjie Technology is a power semiconductor company based in Yangzhou. We hoped they could provide high-power-density SiC modules for our motors, but that’s quite difficult right now. They were interested in this direction, so we hit it off immediately,” Yu Xing explained.

Guo Chuan nodded slightly: "Our domestic semiconductor industry is not doing very well."

“The power devices on the car don’t have such high requirements for the manufacturing process. The reason we seek cooperation with Yangjie Technology is the same for many of our collaborations. Foreign manufacturers are definitely better, but they are unwilling to cooperate with us in in-depth research and development. Either their prices are too high, or they are arrogant.” Yu Xing explained as usual, “We will try to do whatever we can independently, but we can’t do the iBooster system developed by Bosch, at least not now.”

Guo Chuan said sincerely, "President Yu, it's a huge project for you to build this tram."

"It's a big project, a long-term project. To be honest, after working in the internet industry for so long, I've developed a lot of patience," Yu Xing said with a smile. "I may be anxious, but there are many things that can't be rushed, nor can they be rushed. President Guo, our Silicon Carbon Group needs your support."

"Mr. Yu, what are you saying? I, Guo, admire you from the bottom of my heart for your resolute decision to enter the electric vehicle industry." Guo Chuan said with a smile, "I was inspired by you to have the courage to make air suspension. We are all brothers, so there is no question of support or lack thereof."

The initial contact and negotiations of the patent alliance went relatively smoothly. Including the silicon carbon group itself, there were a total of 7 companies, which did cover some links in the industrial chain from upstream to downstream.

Yu Xing and Guo Chuan maintained a good relationship, and they were both smiling during their meeting. However, over the next two days, Yu Xing kept hearing Guo Chuan mention investment, which made him feel a little helpless.

While singing karaoke with everyone that night, he complained, slightly drunk, "Old Guo, even though we've secured this funding, I'm still under a lot of pressure. Sigh, I still have to handle a lot of things myself. They say we're brothers, but they only get things done if you pay them. It's tough."

Guo Chuan, emboldened by the alcohol, replied, "Hey, I understand, Mr. Yu, I understand, but then again, how can we get things done without money? This world is all about money, it's tough, it's tough."

On the other side, Zhong Zhiling, holding a microphone, glanced at the song list and reminded, "Brother Xing, President Guo, it's your turn to sing."

"In your glorious moment, let me sing you a song."

"My good brother, if you have any troubles on your mind, tell me."

Yu Xing and Guo Chuan, arm in arm, happily sang a duet of "My Good Brother".

Although my brother needs money, I still have to thank him for his support.

The patent alliance completed its mutual licensing at the end of April, becoming a loosely organized industry group.

Yu Xing felt that this month had gone by very quickly, and as May was about to begin, he was greeted by a smiling Liu Wanying in his office.

Mitsubishi Motors has completed all acquisitions with Nissan, and according to news reports, some senior executives have also been reassigned according to Ghosn's wishes, which means that the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors Alliance has made substantial progress.

It was only at this point that Guoshanfeng's short selling last year finally yielded its profits.

"The bad news is that the funds in two of our accounts have been temporarily frozen by the Japanese Financial Services Agency on suspicion of profiting through malicious short selling of Mitsubishi Motors, possibly involving insider trading. The principal plus profits amount to approximately $1500 million."

"Good news: the rest have been successfully withdrawn. The overall profit is close to $8000 million. Although it is not as expected, and although it has been dragged down to this point by Japan's financial system, it is finally over."

Guo Shanfeng gained an unprecedented experience from shorting Mitsubishi Motors this time.

Liu Wanying had already considered the risks and even bought the Nikkei index to hedge. The gradual decline and fluctuation of Mitsubishi Motors over the past six months has indeed allowed time to resolve the market sentiment.

"Can the Japanese Financial Services Agency penetrate our organizational structure?" This was the question Yu Xing was concerned about.

Liu Wanying shook her head: "The company accounts are all in areas where there is no mutual authorization. There may be authorization cooperation in the future, but we have already switched to another company. Guoshanfeng only makes a single-digit number of transactions a year, so it can still operate like this."

She paused, then said, "However, I've been researching the Bitcoin you mentioned recently, and some of it can be transferred from there in the future."

The company previously faced a suspected investigation by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and this time it has been explicitly announced that it is under investigation by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA). Such legal actions are quite unsettling.

Japan's financial markets are conservative, with limited short-selling activity, resulting in some of the funds in the funds account of Guoshanfeng being locked.

Although it is difficult to penetrate, Liu Wanying still hopes that this aspect can be made more discreet and secure.

She carefully studied Bitcoin and tentatively went through the procedures, quickly discovering that small commercial banks in regions such as Canada and Singapore had very lax regulations on the flow of funds related to cryptocurrencies.

The funds that crossed the mountain peak were originally split and transferred through offshore accounts. Now they can directly purchase Bitcoin and then perform on-chain cleanup. As for the final fund laundering...

Liu Wanying has already registered a new energy technology company in Wyoming, USA, intending to use it to apply for a business license that allows her to trade carbon credits. She then plans to use the company's bank account to declare "Bitcoin as corporate assets" to the IRS, defining this portion of on-chain funds as prepaid technical service fees to overseas clients, and finally connecting with related companies in Southeast Asia through cross-border trade settlement.

She described it with great enthusiasm, completely disregarding Yu Xing's half-understanding.

“I’ll write down the whole process and explain it to you properly later.” Liu Wanying took a sip of juice and smiled. “I remember you mentioned Liu Jiankai last time. I think this thing is really applicable. If he were to start a business in this area, he might actually succeed.”

“Right, I think so too, but he’s still hesitant.” Yu Xing heard something he could confirm: “Policies in China might tighten in the next two years, so I think he could try going to South Korea first.”

He had heard that South Koreans were crazy about cryptocurrency, but he didn't know exactly how crazy they were. It would be difficult to get policy support in China. Rather than playing cat and mouse with them later, it would be better to look outward from the beginning and use South Korea as a testing ground.

Liu Wanying hummed in agreement, then dropped the subject. After exchanging a glance, she sat down at the racing simulator in the office. She turned the steering wheel and asked, "Is this fun?"

“It’s pretty fun. No wonder F1 professional drivers use this kind of simulation.” Yu Xing brewed tea again, glanced at Xiao Ying, and said, “You try playing a game. I feel it’s not much different from the track I went to in Shanghai.”

Liu Wanying said with a smile, "Hmm, it's fun. Oh, it smells pretty good too."

Yu Xing: "?"

Liu Wanying said, half-jokingly, "That's what they mean by giving away a race car and still having a pleasant aftertaste, right?"

Yu Xing exclaimed in surprise, "Why do I smell vinegar? I told you about it during the New Year, that I received a simulator and a lot of local specialties as gifts from the lower levels."

“Then why didn’t you tell me that the person who gave it to you was as beautiful as a lotus flower?” Liu Wanying initiated the accountability process. “Ma Lianhua, Ma Lianhua, the person is just like her name, huh?”

Yu Xing spread his hands innocently: "Xiao Ying is gossiping now, isn't she? You're the mastermind who can earn 80 million, are you sure you want to ask about this baseless thing today?"

Just a moment ago it was about offshore accounts and on-chain cleansing... how did it all turn into this in the blink of an eye...?

“She didn’t tell me.” Liu Wanying patted the sign in front of her, vehemently denying her role as the informant, and snorted, “Anyway, I don’t care, I don’t like this simulator here.”

She stood up, walked to her desk, slapped out her bank card, and stared at Yu Xing: "Mr. Yu, I'll give you 80 million to get this simulator out of here!"

Yu Xing: "..."

He was both amused and exasperated: "Is it really necessary?"

Liu Wanying raised her chin and threatened, "It's really necessary. Besides, I have money in my account right now. If all else fails, I'll go to Baoteng Group, buy the Lotus Project, and then transfer the people there."

Yu Xing blinked; the person in front of him was indeed a wealthy man.

He said somewhat helplessly, "Move it, move it outside, move it to the company recreation room, so everyone can experience the feeling of driving a race car, okay? If I want to play, I'll go to the Shanghai International Circuit and play for real, okay?"

Liu Wanying said with satisfaction, "That's more like it. Next time she wants to give me something, I'll ask her to buy me some lipstick."

Yu Xing felt that Xiao Ying's reaction was a bit excessive...

But he wisely refrained from further communication with her on this matter.

Soon, Secretary Zhang Yangxu was called in and given the task of finding someone to help carry the simulator out of the CEO's office.

He had no questions whatsoever, as if everything was perfectly normal.

"Are you going to the financial center again today? I have a few company lists that your investors need to review." Yu Xing saw that the office had returned to its old state, but his emotions were not affected, and his attention returned to the company's affairs.

Liu Wanying shook her head: "I'm not going today. Have Xiao Zhang send an email directly. I'll eat lunch with you in the cafeteria."

Yu Xing was a little confused, only thinking that Xiao Ying wanted to keep him company.

Unexpectedly, when lunchtime arrived, Liu Wanying deliberately circled around for a while before laughing and saying, "I saw a iris. No wonder you were so eager to see it. High nose bridge, huh? Exotic charm, huh?"

Yu Xing chuckled: "How have I evolved to the point of being restless? Next time I'm restless, I'll definitely let you know first."

Seeing that Boss Yu looked calm, Liu Wanying's jealousy subsided considerably, but she still said, "Just reporting isn't enough. I need to make Lianhua please me. It's true that I can marry several wives in Malaysia, but I need to get the boss's approval."

Yu Xing commented, "This is getting more and more outrageous. I'll call Xiaoying right now."

Liu Wanying reached out and tapped Boss Yu's forehead, ending the conversation.

No one was sitting around Yu Xing and Liu Wanying.

As he ate, he said, "What will happen to those temporarily frozen funds in Japan? Will they just be stolen?"

"We don't know yet. Maybe they really will freeze the funding, or maybe it will drag on for a long time." Liu Wanying shook her head. "They are really conservative. If we encounter any Japanese targets in the future, we'll have to prepare more."

Yu Xing took a sip of soup and said, "Well, I've asked the company to do more layers of verification on anything from Japan. I think Mitsubishi Motors is just one example; it's not the only company with this problem. If I encounter any data anomalies on my end, you can have someone else verify it."

Liu Wanying agreed.

Yu Xing slowed down his speech and said carefully, "Actually, I think we can try other brands as well, not just Japanese ones. For example, fuel consumption and emissions are areas where data issues are likely to arise."

Liu Wanying asked astutely, "Do you have any new suspects? Have you encountered any unusual data?"

“No, it’s just… an intuition.” Yu Xing shook his head. “If Mitsubishi Motors dared to falsify data for so long, other car companies might too, right? The cost of testing isn’t very high for us. Even if we screen them all, as long as we can find the problems, it’s still quite worthwhile.”

Liu Wanying laughed and said, "You're manufacturing cars yourself, so you've become distrustful of the industry after being exposed to it so much, right? That's fine too."

Yu Xing thought this explanation was reasonable and smiled, "Well, the Carbon Silicon Group will have some fuel consumption tests and research going forward, so you can see if you can find a third-party organization or assemble a team to test emissions and the like."

Liu Wanying thought for a moment and asked, "Are the emission standards in Europe or the United States stricter?"

After a brief recollection, Yu Xing said, "Both Europe and the United States have very strict regulations on gasoline, but it seems that Europe is stricter."

After he finished speaking, he suddenly felt something was wrong, reached out to stop Xiaoying who was about to speak, and frowned, wondering why he felt something was wrong.

After a moment, Yu Xing added, "Diesel, there's still diesel. The diesel market in Europe is quite large, and yes, diesel emission standards are very strict."

Upon hearing this, he became extremely suspicious that his previous oversight lay here. Volkswagen not only produces gasoline vehicles but also diesel vehicles, and his spot checks only targeted the former, completely neglecting to test the latter.

(End of this chapter)