What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 467 Environmentalism
The short-selling funds targeting Renault by Guoshanfeng are facing regulatory troubles, but such pre-existing tracking is still difficult to fully penetrate the regulations of different regions.

However, compared to the previous regulatory actions in Japan and the United States, this time the action is indeed more serious, which makes Liu Wanying wary. Measures such as nominee shareholding, offshore, trust, and non-penetration are indeed useful, but they are trending towards contraction globally.

She didn't discuss such issues with Yu Xing, partly because she was continuing to finalize and expand the fund operations, and partly because she was paying attention to the experimental role that cryptocurrency played in this operation.

Renault's stock price did not continue its irreversible decline the following day. The ambiguous statements from both French and EU official bodies on the matter prevented the panic in the market from spreading further, leading to a rebound in the stock price.

Even so, the destructive power of the mountain pass this time is still astonishing.

As the internet's "tea room," Baixiaosheng Forum has always paid close attention to Shanfeng's short-selling activities. This time, it was also among the first to translate the short-selling report, track media developments, and interpret the French-Japanese power struggle.

Some even suggested creating a special feature on "Crossing the Peak," but Yu Xing intentionally or unintentionally rejected this in the WeChat group.

"Was the mountain-climbing operation really carried out by Chinese people? They've been attacking from Japan to the US to Europe, and this time they've stabbed Renault half to death, causing other automakers' stock prices to plummet. The problem is, they've even managed to get their world's most outstanding CEO into jail..."

"When the short sellers were shorting Mitsubishi, some people speculated that Ghosn was in cahoots with them. Now Ghosn has used his own experience to refute the rumors, but the price was a bit high!"

"Judging from Ghosn's fate, he took advantage of Mitsubishi's weakness when it was shorted by the mountain peak to forcibly swallow it up... The problem is, if he could take advantage of the mountain peak's short selling, others can too... I wonder if he regrets his actions now that he's been detained in Tokyo."

"Whether Ghosn regrets it or not is useless. The mountain peak is beyond his control. If he regrets it, the mountain peak will catch him and stab him. If he doesn't regret it, the mountain peak will catch him and stab him. It can only be said that multinational corporations are indeed not so easy to cross."

"A single report, and a market value of hundreds of billions—it's astounding."

The Baixiaosheng Forum and domestic media generally viewed Guo Shanfeng's short selling as a spectacle. Renault has a low profile in China and doesn't have a strong stance on the emissions fraud issue. The main difference in the reports was that Guo Shanfeng was mentioned again, seemingly filling a gap in the short-selling field in the East.

As for investigating Guo Shanfeng's identity, there are almost no calls for it in China. Previously, Chinese companies listed in the US were either confirmed to be involved in such cases or were listed overseas or in Hong Kong, but mainland authorities have not made any statements to investigate.

Yu Xing continued to observe the impact of the Renault incident in Lingang, and this time he didn't see any debate about short sellers in his WeChat Moments.

However, a day later, he suddenly received a call from Li Song, who immediately started talking about shorting the mountain peak.

Yu Xing chuckled after hearing a couple of sentences and couldn't help but ask the other party, "President Li, Brother Song, you two are really interesting. President Xu came to Hong Kong a few days ago to visit the carbon silicon group, and she talked to me a lot about Guoshanfeng. After she left, you talked to her about Guoshanfeng on the phone again."

He asked, feigning ignorance, "Why are you so interested in the mountains?"

“I have a background in finance, so it’s normal for me to be interested in this area, right?” Li Song gave a plausible explanation and continued, “President Yu, I heard her say that Renault doesn’t sell diesel cars in the US. I had a thought pop into my head, but I couldn’t quite grasp it. I just had a question, can you give me some advice?”

“You two have really found the right people,” Yu Xing said with a smile. “Yes, I’m very interested in cars.”

Li Song thought so too, so he solemnly raised a possibility he had just thought of and asked, "President Yu, in what way do you think Renault falsifies its emissions?"

Yu Xing didn't take the question seriously, thinking about how to answer it as concisely as possible using the currently available information.

Before Li Song could finish speaking, he continued, "President Yu, do you think these diesel vehicles might have more problems?"

Yu Xing was shocked. The evolution of the donkey?
Li Song didn't hear President Yu's reply and assumed he was thinking, so he added, "I'm not talking about Renault's other diesel models. I'm saying, besides Renault, are there also problems with other automakers that are making diesel cars?"

“I heard that Renault’s emissions fraud was due to a design flaw in the European testing standards.” Yu Xing slowly answered Li Song’s previous question, explaining the static conditions of the European standards, and then offered his own “guess”: “Those Renault cars should be able to recognize ‘detection modes,’ such as barometric pressure sensors, air conditioning status, and temperature ranges, which are very rigid parameters during testing.”

There has been no official assessment yet, and even the testing agency that announced the re-emergence of the short-selling report on the mountain peak has not provided a specific analysis of Renault's situation.

After listening to the industry insider's reasoned and well-founded speculation, Li Song nodded secretly and digested the information before saying, "President Yu, so you're saying that breaking through such a rigid testing method isn't actually that difficult in practice, right?"

Yu Xing gave an affirmative answer: "Yes."

Li Song immediately asked, "Does Silicon Carbon Group have such testing equipment? I'm very curious whether other car companies are also falsifying data."

Since venturing into the short-selling industry, Li Song has become somewhat out of touch with reality. Although he hasn't made a sale yet, he has witnessed other short sellers hunting down their targets time and time again, and he spends all his time pondering the possibility of fraud by different listed companies.

After pondering this day and night, and then witnessing Guo Shanfeng's solo kill of Renault, a related idea popped into his head, and he immediately sought someone to verify it.

Perhaps, besides Renault, someone else did it too?

Yu Xing hesitated for a moment: "President Li, this..."

Li Song excitedly confirmed again, "President Yu, this test really isn't difficult, is it?"

It's not difficult; if you test it with clues in mind, it certainly won't be difficult.

The problem is... it's getting a bit late.

Yu Xing said seriously, "No, Mr. Li, what are you trying to achieve with this testing? Do you want to emulate Shan Feng?"

Li Song suddenly realized that his intentions were too obvious.

He immediately tried to cover it up: "Well, I was just... just curious. I was... I was that... that..."

Li Song thought and thought but couldn't find a suitable reason. Feeling the silence on the other end of the phone, sweat began to bead on his forehead.

He paused for several seconds, then suddenly declared righteously, "I am an environmentalist!!"

Yu Xing: "Huh?"

“Yes, Mr. Yu, I am a staunch environmentalist! Renault is despicable! They clearly promote diesel as a clean energy source! Yet they fabricate such facts!” Li Song’s logic circled back to the point, “I cannot tolerate such a thing happening right under our noses! I want to see if any other car companies are doing the same thing!”

He declared confidently, "If they are indeed detected, I will definitely make them public!!"

Yu Xing was both amused and exasperated; the donkey's quick wit was quite remarkable.

He hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Does Mr. Xu know about this?"

Li Song said, "She knows, she's an environmentalist too!" Yu Xing: "..."

He said somewhat helplessly, "Well, I have testing equipment here, exhaust gas analyzers and chassis dynamometers, I have all of those things, but... this..."

Upon hearing about the equipment, Li Song was overjoyed. Waving the environmental protection banner, he asked, "President Yu, what's wrong? Do you have any concerns? Don't you support environmental protection? You yourself work in new energy! We must leave a green Earth for future generations!"

“Alright then.” Yu Xing conceded, then asked, “If you want to test it, go ahead, but do you have a car? Those car companies’ diesel cars are generally for the overseas market.”

"Buy it! What's a little cost compared to environmental protection?" Li Song, already immersed in his own sound logic and the prospects of short selling, said without hesitation, "Whether it's abroad or domestically, the Earth belongs to all of humanity!"

After a few seconds of silence, Yu Xing said, "Okay, you can come anytime. I'll let my secretary know, and you can just tell him that I might not be in Lingang for a while."

Li Song thanked President Yu and hung up the phone in a hurry.

However, he called back shortly after the call ended.

After calming down a bit, Li Song realized a problem: there are many car manufacturers and even more car models, and he is not familiar with this area. If he were to buy a car, the scope would be too large and he would have no clue what to do. Therefore, he still hoped to get help from professionals.

"If you ask me that, I can't answer it right now..." Yu Xing hesitated, "Just follow the sales charts from overseas markets."

Li Song still hoped to hit the target quickly and accurately, so he asked, "President Yu, let me put it this way, which car companies do you think are more likely to succeed?"

Yu Xing had no choice but to raise his question again from his own perspective: "Hey, Mr. Li, you're not really going to short sell, are you?"

Li Song vehemently denied the allegations and once again spoke about the green earth and conservation efforts.

Yu Xing was getting a headache: "Okay, okay, before this Renault incident happened, nobody knew they would dare to fabricate something like this. Now that this has happened, you want me to guess? Well, I'm just guessing, it doesn't constitute any advice at all, you're just listening to this."

"Of course! Mr. Yu, you can speak with confidence. As brothers, I really appreciate your help." While eager for professional advice, Li Song had already tentatively planned a testing budget of $100 million in his mind.

“Nissan is definitely a suspect. The alliance between Nissan and Renault has been going on for a long time, and the two companies share technologies. I think we should question it,” Yu Xing offered a reasonable guess, and continued, “Then there’s Citroën, which is also a French company. They’re from the same country, so there might be some shady dealings between them.”

Li Song nodded in agreement: "President Yu, you're right!"

"And then, that's just pure guessing." Yu Xing felt a bit tricky. "Is it possible that the sales are high? I think it's unlikely, but I'm afraid of the worst-case scenario. Like Volkswagen, GM, Mercedes-Benz, BMW... sigh, it's really hard to say. We can only verify it with actual results."

Li Song thought for a moment and asked, "President Yu, according to the ranking of diesel vehicles, which of these are at the top?"

"Volkswagen first, Renault-Mitsubishi-Nissan second, Citroën third, Ford fourth, then BMW and Kia, and so on." Yu Xing thought about the current situation and still advised, "Take your time testing. There are many car companies and models, so it's hard to say."

Li Song verbally agreed, but in his heart he had a completely opposite decision.

He had a thought: if he could think of it, surely others could too?

You might be on the phone while someone else is already taking the test.

Time waits not for us!

After ending the call, Li Song immediately called Xu Xin to further increase the budget for this test, hoping to use $200 million to do it.

Xu Xin was taken aback: "Two million US dollars? Isn't this like looking for a needle in a haystack?"

“$200 million can buy many car models. If it weren’t for the problems with Renault, I believe that budget would be enough,” Li Song said, then offered the perspective of an industry insider: “I’ve talked a lot with President Yu, and he also thinks it might not just be Renault falsifying data. The EU standards are problematic, and those car companies are blinded by profit. They’re really audacious. You don’t believe me, but don’t you believe Yu Xing, that industry insider?”

After a moment of contemplation, Xu Xin laughed and said, "He manufactures cars and works on new energy vehicles, not testing them. He's a mountain climber. You want me to trust him? Forget it, let's give it a try. It's hard to get any results without investing money. Maybe that's how mountain climbing is tested."

It is now widely believed that the detection of the mountain peak was carried out after information about a mole within Renault.

Li Song was quite pleased and immediately began preparing to spend money, determined to create a reputation for short selling.

Yu Xing stood there stunned for a moment in his office, then informed Liu Wanying, who was still in Hong Kong.

Liu Wanying laughed for a while on the phone, then said, "If even President Li thinks this way, then this matter with Volkswagen is indeed quite urgent."

Yu Xing sighed, "You can't say that. President Li is also quite intelligent."

"Let's leave it at that. Okay, really okay. You're the most knowledgeable about cars and short selling among them." Liu Wanying suppressed a laugh. "Let's leave it at that this time. Maybe we'll have a chance to join in next time."

Yu Xing was somewhat helpless about this situation. Regardless of their intelligence, the couple was quite stubborn.

He ended the call with Xiao Ying, actually taking into account that more people would pay attention to "diesel vehicles" and interpreting Li Song's actions as a signal.

Yu Xing called his secretary, Zhang Yangxu, and instructed Li Song on the matter of the test.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yangxu was utterly bewildered: "President Li wants to use the factory's testing equipment? Isn't he in the investment business?"

“He’s not in the investment business, he’s in the dating and marriage business, well, you could call him an investor.” Yu Xing shook his head. “He’s in the environmental protection business now.”

Zhang Yangxu silently repeated the word.

Yu Xing said, "Just assume he wants to invest in environmental protection, and do as he says."

Zhang Yangxu still felt something was off, but he accepted his boss's order and contacted Li Song via WeChat after leaving the office to show his boss that he valued friendship.

Li Song was thrilled and couldn't wait to invest first and then produce results, to test first and then short sell.

(End of this chapter)