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

Inside the Yongcheng Hotel, several people were chatting animatedly after having some drinks.

Don't let Gu Xinxiu's status as a woman, or her marriage, fool you. Back in her school days, she was quite a tough character, indulging in drinking and reckless driving.

“Things are different now than they were back then. More and more people are going abroad, but fewer and fewer are coming back,” Chen Xu said as he drank.

"Of course! Houses are appreciating in value right now, and anyone with a bit of ambition is choosing to cash out and get US dollars. Anyone who keeps the money is a fool, because everyone knows that money is just a game currency!" After returning to China, Sun Cheng not only took over his father's factory but also secretly worked on engineering projects with Chen Xu, gaining some understanding of the real estate market.

He wasn't just saying that randomly; when Chen Xi went abroad, people in China weren't actually that wealthy.

The middle class then surged because housing prices rose and money was printed in droves.

Due to reasons such as foreign exchange controls, even if more money is printed, it does not depreciate externally and has little impact domestically.

Some clever people choose to cash out their tokens because they know these tokens can only be used at designated amusement parks.

"Although I'm currently involved in construction and don't want house prices to drop, I think those so-called experts have ulterior motives. They clearly know the current real estate market is a bubble, yet they still tell others to stabilize it. They say things like a real estate bubble bursting will affect all industries, but are we just going to let prices keep rising? I think these people just want to cash out, but someone has to foot the bill. In the end, who will foot the bill? Aren't they the unlucky ones who still haven't escaped?"

Now these banks, having devoured the real estate market, are colluding with foreign capital to bleed ordinary people dry… According to our Commercial Banking Law, we operate under a separation of banking and securities businesses. Theoretically, commercial banks are prohibited from directly entering the stock market and investing directly in non-bank financial institutions and enterprises. However, through wealth management products or off-balance-sheet activities, they are using a shell to channel depositors' money into trusts, securities asset management companies, and ultimately into real estate or high-risk projects… In other countries, commercial banks must strictly separate their proprietary trading from depositors' funds, and there are robust bankruptcy liquidation mechanisms in place to prevent problems. This is extremely unreasonable here. You see, recently there have been frequent reports of depositors' money being misappropriated to buy wealth management products…

For a long time, our banks' main income has relied on the interest rate spread between deposits and loans. Because interest rate liberalization is still in progress, banks are essentially enjoying low-cost deposit-taking under policy protection. In contrast, European and American banks have very thin interest rate spreads; they are more like financial service providers, with a large portion of their income coming from fees related to consulting, asset management, and M&A brokerage.

This model has led to a lack of motivation for our banks to provide services. Because banks can make easy money simply by collecting deposits and issuing loans, they are now more inclined to lend money to large state-owned enterprises or real estate companies with collateral, while small and micro enterprises and entrepreneurs who really need money cannot get it. Then, the government calls for lending to revitalize the economy, so banks are supporting financial companies to make loans..." Sun Cheng continued.

Chen Xi nodded after listening.

Putting banks aside, in my past life I always heard those so-called experts boasting about their high-tech innovations and mocking them for going down the wrong path.

Take, for example, the AI ​​that was all the rage before his time travel. Initially, it was only a few dozen streets behind, but later it fell hundreds of streets behind. They created all sorts of hype around things like "a certain package," "a certain question," and "DP," even claiming that as long as they controlled the power supply, they would be invincible. But when they couldn't justify their claims anymore, they ended up resorting to distillation and selling tokens.

While there's some hype surrounding AI, the US's AI technology is indeed far ahead of China's.

“Few people are coming back now, and more people are leaving after returning. This is not a good thing, because ambitious people who want to carry out reforms are disheartened and leave when they see that they cannot make changes, which is equivalent to losing talent,” Sun Cheng continued.

"Who among us who came back wasn't full of ambition? Later I realized it was all ridiculous. We don't lack talent here, what we lack are people who are obedient and follow orders, people who can maintain stability." Chen Xu seemed to have had too much to drink, and he spoke even more enthusiastically than Sun Cheng.

Most of those studying abroad are reformists, and they are young and have ideas.

Chen Xi fell silent after hearing this.

In his previous life, he returned full of hope, wanting to change something, but he was changed by others instead.

Linxi had previously said she wanted to change things through the association...sigh...

The atmosphere of the meal changed somewhat as the conversation progressed. Chen Xi remembered that when they first came back, everyone was full of enthusiasm and wanted to do something big.

Years later, everyone was complaining and grumbling, tinged with resentment. It's unclear what exactly went wrong...

Evening, at the new house.

Exhausted, Chen Yifeng returned home and had just sat down on the sofa to get a drink of water when his two children rushed downstairs and surrounded him, which annoyed him quite a bit.

Zhang Xuan stood on the stairs with an unfriendly expression and asked, "Was your factory taken over by someone?"

"Take it away? Who dares to take my factory! Today, I led the workers in a resistance and drove those bandits away." Chen Yifeng slammed his hand on the table, announcing his victory.

Then, after a moment's thought, he asked, "How did you know about this?"

"Now who doesn't know you're on the news?"

What did the news say?

"It is illegal to say that you are not cooperating with the enforcement."

"Pah! These guys are in cahoots, trying to force their way in with violence. I think they're the ones breaking the law," Chen Yifeng sneered.

"What exactly did you do? Why are they coming to take over your factory? You didn't go bankrupt, did you..." Zhang Xuan asked.

"Yes, I'm bankrupt. Are you planning to leave?"

"Hmph, I didn't get together with you for your money. How could you think of me like that? I can't be bothered arguing with you." Having gotten the answer she wanted, Zhang Xuan turned and went upstairs without looking back.

"They're really good at pretending." Chen Yifeng muttered to himself, glancing with some disdain at his 'daughter' who was still making a ruckus not far away.

“It’s nothing like me,” he added.

Two days later, Chen Xi returned to his new home and learned about his father's ordeal from Chen Caiyue.

Chen Xi knew about this because Chen Yifeng had been nagging about it for over ten years in his previous life, always saying that once he recovered, he would definitely make those people pay.

Chen Xi wasn't back to relax this time; he had things to do.

Since Duan Yixiong was taken away, the car company bosses and the person from Dadao Group sat down together and came up with a solution that would allow all manufacturers to develop peacefully and share subsidies.

That means everyone should avoid competition and instead embrace mutual inclusion.

For example, if all manufacturers standardize battery standards, previously high-priced cars can reduce costs to lower their selling price, and the prices of electric vehicles produced at the factory will be averaged out to a similar level.

As for who sells well, who sells poorly, and which company might be delisted, we'll discuss that privately.

Chen Xi's batteries became one of the targets for these manufacturers' unified procurement. Of course, Li Weibin was the first to propose this plan, because the future batteries would be supplied by Chen Xi.

Of all the cars, the one with the highest price in the future will be the most expensive. If you want it to be discounted, there must be certain conditions.

Li Weibin also had his own agenda. He had helped Chen Xi secure such a large order, so he was bound to get some benefits in return.

"Mr. Chen, I heard that Mr. Duan used to be one of your company's shareholders. That guy is not a good person. He set up an environmental protection association before, and he has been extorting us for a long time, and he even had the nerve to talk about membership fees."

"Exactly, it's great to see this guy taken away for investigation."

After these car company bosses sat down, they began to criticize Duan Yixiong, as everyone knew that he often contradicted Chen Xi.

"Oh dear, Mr. Duan's departure was too sudden. Without him, Huahetong is struggling to function properly," Chen Xi remarked casually.

“Mr. Chen, we’ve all discussed it and decided that we’ll all purchase your batteries together from now on,” Li Weibin said first.

"That's a good thing, but then again, subsidies can only work temporarily. If all car companies stop competing with each other, how will they make money?" Chen Xi countered.

"Of course, it's about making big money from stocks!" a car company executive waved his hand.

"Oh, so it's just about taking money from stock investors." Chen Xi originally wanted to say the word 'scam,' but felt it wouldn't be appropriate.

"Mr. Chen, you're mistaken. If shareholders lose money, they come to us, but what about when they win? They don't share any of the winnings with us, and we don't force them to buy stocks, right? In the end, it's just greed. They invest more if they want to win more, and they can't blame anyone else if they lose."

"That's right, to put it bluntly. Retail investors are the ones making the contribution; society needs to develop, and development requires investment..."

The other two bosses immediately began to correct Chen Xi's flawed thinking.

Since his rebirth, Chen Xi has never traded stocks in the country.

In other novels, when the protagonist is reborn and goes back to the past, he will definitely buy stocks like Moutai and Tencent, and then become rich overnight after a while.

However, Chen Xi thought this was impossible.

Stocks are variables; you can't guarantee a win just by knowing the price increase in advance, especially in the domestic stock market.

In his previous life, he also ran a private equity firm. People in that circle lost money investing in stocks, let alone ordinary people.

He had previously joked with several business owners, saying that he had read a few novels where the protagonist was reborn and went back to speculate in stocks and make a fortune. He asked if they could do that.

The bosses all replied that if they were reborn, they would be reborn as humans, not as gods.

You could say that the domestic stock market is like a casino; even if you were reborn and knew you'd win big, you could still end up losing if you went all in.

Duan Yixiong, who was taken away, was just like these car company bosses at the time, wanting to take Huahetong public and make money as the stockbroker.

"Everyone here is discussing how to get subsidies and how to make the story more convincing in the stock market. But if everyone is focused on how to raise money instead of figuring out how to build something, then the workers below will become useless. When this heavy truck is completely crushed by capital, what other way out will those who used to work for you have besides pay cuts and layoffs?"

"Ahem, let me say a few words." At this moment, a tall man coughed lightly.

Chen Xi turned his head and saw that the man was the boss of Dadao Group. He had a refined and scholarly demeanor.

"Mr. Chen, I don't know if you've read the book 'How the Steel Was Tempered.' There's a very interesting part in it where Paul tries to reform the canteen at the train station, hoping to rescue the exploited waitresses. But what happened? The women didn't appreciate it at all. Instead, they yelled at Paul, saying, 'Before you came, we had everything. I had a job and money.'"

What was Paul's response? He tore away the veil of sentimentality and told them directly, 'Money? You call this money? Bloch is exploiting you, selling you off like bitches for profit, and you're going to defend them?' Mr. Chen, you were just worried that employees would lose their jobs or have their salaries reduced because we can't build cars well, and you felt that our methods were ruining the company. But have you considered that, to the employees below us, we are Bloch?

"Without us telling stories, raising funds, and taking subsidies here, without this wildly spinning capital machine, this enormous amusement park would never have been built. By then, they wouldn't even have the chance to be bitches. Just as the women in the book complained, once idealists like Paul truly shatter the old order, they would truly have nothing left. Mr. Chen, tell me, are we, the Brochs, exploiting them, or are we fulfilling their meager desire to survive?"

Chen Xi had naturally read the book. At the time, the waitress was very angry, saying that she had parents and a younger sister to support, and even if Bloch didn't treat them like human beings, at least he had paid her. She also accused Paul of meddling because the waitress herself had lost her job.

Paul angrily asked, "Is being a prostitute a job?"
The waitress replied that even if she slept with other people, she would get paid, and sometimes even a tip, but you can't give me anything.

Chen Xi, the owner of Da Dao Group, had little contact with him, but he knew that the reason this man's wealth had increased so quickly was because he invested everywhere.

For example, the overseas returnees association's current credit card swiping service is one of the strongest competitors in the industry... which was the industry leader in my previous life. The boss of Dadao Group is one of its shareholders, and he also has connections with those financial companies and online lending platforms in Chongqing. Otherwise, someone like him who tries to get involved in every industry would have been torn to pieces long ago if it were anyone else.

Actually, Chen Xi didn't want to comment too much on this person, but the other person's speeches at certain meetings gave him the feeling that there was an outlier in the entrepreneurial team.

Whether it's for self-preservation or not, either don't speak at all, or don't start with this or that.

The Xu family sang so many praises back then, but they still ended up in jail. If they had nothing to hide, why would they need to shout so loudly?
Are you really doing justice to those who failed in the fight against the pandemic by putting on such a show of slogans?

“That’s truly insightful. Mr. Chen, we’re all just trying to protect our employees’ livelihoods. As long as our stock keeps rising, as long as this game continues, they can manage to get by. That’s called having a strategic vision, don’t you think?” Li Weibin broke the silence by patting his round thigh.

Looking at the rosy faces of these bosses, Chen Xi felt a complex mix of emotions.

“Now that everyone has laid everything bare, it would be rude of me to keep putting on airs. I can standardize battery specifications and negotiate prices. But I, Chen Xi, don’t play games that only involve stock prices without actual products. Mr. Li, I’ll accept this order you’ve secured, but my production line needs a real cash advance, nothing else.” Chen Xi stubbed out his cigarette, a businesslike smile appearing on his face.

It's not a good thing to strain relations with someone like the boss of the Da Dao Group, who has ties to the mainland.

"Haha, Mr. Chen is always so straightforward. As long as we can supply the goods, we can discuss the money issue together." Li Weibin clapped his hands.

Chen Xi didn't say anything more.

Perhaps Paul isn't really needed here, because he can't wake up the waitresses who just want to survive. (End of Chapter)