I'm reborn and I'm an international student again?

Eleba headquarters.

"Mr. Chen, are you serious?" Zhang Xu looked at Chen Xi angrily.

"What do you mean, 'real' or 'fake'? I already told you." Chen Xi leaned back on the sofa leisurely and exhaled a puff of smoke.

"Aren't we on the same side?"

"You still know we're on the same side? How many of the suggestions I gave you before did you heed?"

"But you can't just come and steal our jobs, can you?"

"We only send things that are difficult to send, such as cakes and flowers. To put it bluntly, we're trying to lighten your burden."

"But this will steal our users and merchants!"

"Then you need to ask yourself, why are all the riders coming here? Isn't it because your rules and treatment are problematic? How about I give you an idea? I also do food delivery in Australia. You can just take Hungry Dragon's model here, change it into a new delivery service, and try it out... I've even thought of a name for you: Galaxy Stomach Protectors!"

"What?"

Zhang Xu looked on incredulously after hearing this.

According to Chen Xi's delivery method, the late fees are low, the delivery is slow, and it's supposed to be good for your stomach? Customers would probably starve before they even get their food.

“It wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. Increase the unit price, reduce the number of orders, start with high-end restaurants, focus on quality and experience, which means in-store delivery.” Chen Xi snapped his fingers.

"You mean looking for large chain stores, like KFC or McDonald's?" Zhang Xu realized.

"Yes, we can also collaborate with upscale Western restaurants to launch high-quality weight-loss meals."

Just then, Chen Xi's phone rang.

The caller ID showed Lin Xi, and he vaguely guessed what was going on.

"Hey?"

"Damn it, Chen Xi, come back quick! People from the relevant departments came to talk to me, saying our company teaches users how to cash out credit cards..."

On the other end of the phone, Linxi sounded anxious.

"You can just give me a few casual words about this. You vouched for me before, and the stocks I bought for you haven't been cashed out yet. I absolutely can't show my face; I'm counting on you."

"What the hell?! How am I supposed to fool this?"

"Hello...hello...the signal is not very good..."

Chen Xi deliberately dragged out his words before quickly hanging up the phone.

"Oh, Mr. Chen even plays the stock market?" Zhang Xu didn't hear it completely, but he caught the key words.

"Just playing around, I have plenty of spare cash on hand!" Chen Xi waved his hand and smiled.

"Lots of money?"

These two words immediately sparked a flood of thoughts in Zhang Xu's mind.

He originally thought that joining the food delivery war by hauling goods was just a passing fancy and that he would eventually quit.

But judging from the current situation, it's probably not that simple.

The person in front of me is just like Feng Yun, someone who loves to burn money.

“Mr. Zhang, going to pick up goods to bring them into the market might not be a bad thing. There’s an old saying that goes, ‘Things will turn into their opposites when they reach an extreme,’ you must have heard of that, right?” Chen Xi stubbed out his cigarette.

Zhang Xu is a smart man.

In his previous life, he decisively relinquished the company he had founded at the right time, took the money, and turned to start a new project, which can be described as a wise retreat at the peak of his career.

As expected, Zhang Xu did not refute this time, but simply nodded thoughtfully.

"Hahaha, Chen Xi, you're here too? Let me tell you, this time my Ant Financial is really going to rise!"

At that moment, Feng Yun burst through the door, laughing loudly.

It turns out that his online bank, which he had established so recently, had not been trusted by many people, and its business had been slow to take off.

However, many people are short of money these days and cannot get loans from other banks, so the amount of loans borrowed through online banks has suddenly surged.

Because they lack physical branches, online banks cannot attract deposits at the same low cost as traditional banks.

However, it is backed by Ant Financial and Alibaba, and other banks recognize its creditworthiness and are willing to lend it funds. In other words, the money in online banks actually still comes from traditional banks.

Similar to the loans Chen Xi secured from CEFC, Feng Yun also found many partners like Sun Dixun at other banks. As a result, much of the money originally intended for consumer loans by banks flowed into online banking.

"I also have good news. Mr. Wang has obtained the license for online medicine delivery, the only one of its kind in the country!" Chen Xi grinned.

Just like in his previous life, Wang Zhi earned his first qualification through his own abilities; otherwise, he didn't know how many years he would have had to wait to realize his dream of delivering medicine by food delivery.

"Oh? This should be good news for you, how does it concern me?" Feng Yun asked, somewhat puzzled.

“We’ve reached a cooperation agreement with SF Express, and the order system is shared between the two parties. If one party can’t deliver, the order can be transferred to the other. I’m planning to share this license. I wonder if Mr. Feng could also make a gesture?” Chen Xi said with a smile.

To put it bluntly, this first license in the country was used as a pilot program.

If it works, others can get it too.

Why not proactively share it? You might even get some orders in return.

"I think it's feasible!" Zhang Xu said before Feng Yun could respond.

Currently, the platform only delivers food. If medicine delivery is added, the number of orders on the platform could very well double!
More importantly, once medicine delivery is available, users will prioritize Ele.me over Meituan when ordering takeout.

"Well... I think it's okay... let's just listen to Zhang Xu." Feng Yun was still immersed in the joy of Ant Financial and didn't pay much attention to this matter.

Currently, there are three types of loans on the market: the first is bank loans with the lowest interest rates, the second is online loans with the highest interest rates, and the third is consumer finance institutions, which fall in between.

Online lending funds typically come from multiple institutions, while consumer finance funds mostly come from banks. Ant Financial started with online lending, expanded into consumer finance, and now has even established a private bank, covering all three areas of business.

Given the opportunity to develop, it has the potential to compete with other commercial banks in the future.

To be honest, this online bank was later known as the king of loan withdrawals; it did even more ruthlessly than other banks.

“By the way, Chen, about that… swipe card…” Feng Yun was about to say something when he glanced at Zhang Xu next to him.

Zhang Xu, being quite perceptive, replied, "President Chen just gave me some good suggestions, and I'll go discuss them with the marketing department right away."

After saying that, he left the office.

As soon as the other person left, Chen Xi spoke up: "President Feng, I've noticed you've been unhappy with the banks for a long time. How about we join forces?"

"Join forces? How?"

"Banks are finding it hard to issue loans these days, products are being updated more frequently, offline approvals are being reduced, and online big data systems are becoming increasingly important. Here's my thinking: 'ShuakaShua' can use its vast network of offline POS merchants as leverage to partner with major banks and launch transaction-based loan products. The agreement stipulates that the banks provide the funds, and ShuakaShua recommends a list of merchants. We synchronize the merchants' real-time transaction data to the online banks, and your AI risk control models quickly filter out the highest-quality and safest customers, immediately pushing them loans with higher limits, lower interest rates, and faster disbursement (through Alipay). After you've secured these top-quality customers, ShuakaShua then submits the next-lower-tier customer list to the partner banks. The banks get higher-risk customers, leading to increased bad debt rates. Ultimately, we jointly reap the biggest profits and obtain the best data, while the banks foot the bill..."

"Ha, that's a brilliant move!" Feng Yun clapped his hands in approval.

“Furthermore, while credit card repayments themselves are currently free, banks need to pay channel fees to third-party payment companies. Alipay and POSPay can heavily promote free credit card repayments, attracting a massive number of users to deposit funds into Alipay or POSPay, forming a huge pool of funds. Once users develop this habit, bank apps will no longer be the only way to repay, and user activity and stickiness will naturally decrease. When users repay through Alipay, they are actually using the money in their reserve fund account to transfer funds to the bank in bulk. The process is delayed by 1-2 days, and Alipay can earn interest on this huge sum of money…” Chen Xi continued to add.

There are many tricks to credit card repayment.

For example, if you are a Huaxing Bank credit card user and repay using your Huaxing savings card, the funds will usually arrive within one day. However, if you repay using a card from another bank or a third party, the arrival of the funds will be delayed.

This is why some people are still considered overdue even though they have made payments.

Later, the bank had to change its rules, defaulting to extending the repayment period by three days.

"Great, great! Let's join forces and make those vampires suffer!" Feng Yun became more and more excited as he listened.

"Actually, I have another trick up my sleeve. Online banks partner with POS terminals, with POS recommending their merchants—essentially joint lending or loan assistance. Online banks don't hold all these loans themselves; instead, they package them into asset-backed securities (ABS) and sell them to city commercial banks and rural commercial banks that crave high-yield investments. These banks typically have limited investment channels and weaker risk control. Online banks and POS earn risk-free service fees and channel fees. If the economy declines and micro-loans default on a large scale, the ultimate bad debt losses will be borne by the banks that purchased the ABS. We'll make a fortune. If the banks come looking for trouble, we can simply say we were just the technology providers..."

"You little rascal, you're really wicked!"

And so, the two began to chat without any reservations in the office.

On the other end, Linxi hung up the phone and calmed down a bit.

He turned to the staff who came to inspect him, his tone hardening: "You need to provide evidence for your claims. We, Shuakashua, are just a third-party payment institution that provides POS machines. There are hundreds of companies like us in the market. The claim that we teach users how to maliciously cash out is likely a malicious report from a competitor. I'm even starting to doubt your identities and motives. Could it be that you've been bribed to specifically target me?"

These were all words that Chen Xi had taught him beforehand, and Lin Xi simply quoted them, which immediately stunned the other party.

To be honest, the monthly profit from swiping cards is as high as hundreds of millions, and the accounts have always been very proper. Even the tax bureau has never found any fault with them.

The people in front of me claimed to be from the Market Supervision Administration, but credit card cash-out is not under their jurisdiction at all.

The leader was quite assertive; after a moment of hesitation, he slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "I suspect your company is operating beyond its permitted scope! You must cooperate with our investigation!"

"Come on, this kind of thing is always handled by multiple departments working together. It should be the State Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau, the Bank of China, or even the Economic Investigation Bureau. When did it become the Market Supervision Administration's responsibility?" Lin Xi slammed her hand on the table and shouted at the uniformed officers who were flipping through documents, "Put everything down!"

“Boss, they must have powerful connections to run this kind of company. Maybe…” A uniformed man whispered to the leader.

"Hmph! We'll come back in a few days!" The fat leader thought for a moment, snorted coldly, and left with his men.

"Damn it, that damn Chen Xi, he ran away and left me with all this mess..." Lin Xi couldn't help but complain as soon as he left.

In fact, Chen Xi had long anticipated this situation, which is why he gave up the position of company CEO to him.

A month later, Jeju Island's economic situation remained sluggish.

Major companies are selling off their assets on the island and are eager to find buyers.

Chen Xi became the white knight in their eyes, acquiring a large number of properties at 20-30% of their original price.

At a cocktail party at the Royal Hotel in the capital of South Korea.

"Haha, I heard that a guy from country H spent a lot of money to buy up a bunch of properties on Jeju Island. The missiles are almost deployed, and the island is practically sealed off. This guy from country H is really good at taking advantage of small things."

A man in his thirties, wearing glasses and a suit, was holding a wine glass and chatting with someone.

“Hmph, you’re right. I’ve encountered those annoying Koreans abroad too, always trying to engage in cutthroat competition and steal my business,” Kim Junsu chimed in.

"To be honest, apart from our great Korean nation and the island nation, people from other Asian countries only know how to use underhanded tactics in business. I remember we used to have a game called Legend, which was taken and popularized by people from Country H. When the copyright expired, we wanted to take it back, but they actually acted like scoundrels and made a knock-off version to continue operating! Relying on their connections in the courts on their own turf, we couldn't even win the lawsuit. This is blatant intellectual property theft! Like the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, who doesn't know that they were originally our traditions? They actually have the nerve to claim them as their own! Once, I went to Country H on business, and when I saw rice cakes on the table, I casually said: 'So you eat rice cakes too?' Guess what they said? They said that rice cakes were invented by them! Who doesn't know that our cheese rice cakes are the most authentic?" The bespectacled man became more and more agitated as he spoke.

“That’s right! They also said that our Taekwondo is all show and no substance, that the moves are just for performance. Doesn’t Korean Kung Fu also involve performance?” A fat man next to him nodded in agreement.

"Let's not talk about that. I heard there will be a few white people at the party tonight, apparently representatives of the four major grain companies. They say they want to team up with us food giants to deal with someone. You see, people always say we're America's dogs. They're clearly begging us for favors! Our great kimchi country is a developed country in Asia..." The bespectacled man said with a smug laugh.

Despite South Korea's scarcity of resources, its food processing industry is quite advanced.

Some of these companies also have in-depth cooperation with the world's four largest grain traders.

For example, CJ CheilJedang, a food giant that spun off from Samsung, is now the largest food processing and consumer brand in South Korea.

Furthermore, POSCO International dominates South Korea's grain trade, practically controlling the country's grain import and export lifeline.

"By the way, Junsu, are you still working on the rocket project with Choi Jong-saeng? You lost so much money before, which really angered your older brother, and your father..." The bespectacled man seemed to suddenly remember something and began to speak.

"I'm building my rockets, why are you bringing him up?" Kim Junsu's face darkened instantly.

Kim Junsu's older brother, Kim Carrey, is the designated successor to the family business.

Some time ago, their father was sentenced for dereliction of duty and embezzlement. Jim Carrey was appointed to take over in a time of crisis. He not only stabilized the group's operations and demonstrated strong leadership, but also further consolidated his position as the successor.

Compared to his older brother, Kim Junsu's abilities are merely average, and he is not highly regarded by the higher-ups within the group.

Previously, he had collaborated with Choi Jong-saeng on a rocket project, which resulted in significant losses for the group, making it even more difficult for him to remain in the company.

Since their father went to prison, his older brother had often mocked and ridiculed him, treating him like a son, which made Kim Jun-soo feel extremely frustrated and depressed. (End of Chapter)