Debuted right after graduating from high school

When Pony Ma said he "couldn't afford it," he was just joking.

He still holds approximately 12% of Penguin Group's shares, which are worth approximately HK$750 billion based on the latest market capitalization of HK$90 billion.

Including the funds he previously cashed out and other assets, his total net worth has already reached the threshold of HK$10 billion, making him a member of the "super-rich club".

Given the construction costs in mainland China, as long as there is no extravagance and waste, such as choosing the world's most expensive building materials and decorating with a large number of exorbitantly priced antiques and handicrafts, it actually doesn't put too much pressure on Ma Ying-jeou.

Since achieving complete financial freedom, influenced by Fan Wumian, Little Ma has built a courtyard house in Guaibang Hutong in Beijing and acquired an old house on Barker Road in Hong Kong, planning to spend two or three hundred million Hong Kong dollars to demolish and rebuild it.

Unlike Fan Wumian, who is always in the spotlight and often in the eye of the storm, he lives a very comfortable life without showing off.

After the two separated.

It was still early, so Pony Ma returned to the headquarters of Tencent. After getting out of the car, he stood there for a while, observing the office building. The more he looked at it, the more he felt it was shabby and unworthy of Tencent's current market value.

So when he arrived at the office, he immediately called over Vice President Ge to discuss acquiring the land as soon as possible and preparing to build the new headquarters building.

When Vice President Ge saw that Little Ma had returned from his trip as if he were under a spell, wanting to squeeze out a large sum of money to spend on land, he, for the sake of the company's interests, tried to dissuade him:

"The Yanjing Extreme Realm Penguin City project is not yet completed and has already cost us a lot of money. It's not a good idea to continue building a new headquarters building in Shenzhen. If word gets out, it may affect the stock price."

“There is an ‘office building rule’ in economics, which means that the more perfect and luxurious the design of an office building, the closer the company is to decline. When a company is thriving, it is mainly busy with development and has no time to build a luxurious building. When it starts building, it may indicate that its energy has shifted to the surface and will consume a lot of money, which is detrimental to the company’s development.”

"There's also a 'skyscraper index.' Economists have found that economic recessions or stock market slumps often occur around the time new skyscrapers are completed. Loose policies and economic optimism encourage large-scale construction projects, while excessive investment and speculative bubbles lead to policy tightening, thus sounding the alarm for economic transformation."

After listening to Vice President Ge's eloquent explanation, Xiao Ma was immediately impressed and began to reflect on whether there was a problem with his own or the company's development pace.

However, after thinking it over, he couldn't figure out what was wrong, so he said to Vice President Ge:
"The global economy is indeed in a downturn, but Mr. Fan's vision is much better than ours. When has he ever failed in his investments?"

"Since they suggested that we acquire the land in advance, there must be a reason for it. Besides, it's just about getting the land first. We don't know when the actual development will take place, so it won't tie up that much capital."

"I've noticed that Mr. Fan's company has been busy lately laying out real estate and infrastructure businesses. They've acquired Yanjing Zhongxin Real Estate, raised funds from Longhu Real Estate, Greentown China, and Hengda Real Estate, and even partnered with Country Garden and Vanke to establish a new company. It's clear they're playing a long game. They've even said that after the economic crisis, the mainland will rely on real estate and infrastructure to drive economic growth in the next few years."

After listening, Vice President Ge was stunned for a moment, and then asked:

"President Fan's suggestion? Then there's no problem. He must be thinking that land prices are still cheap and wants us to get the land in advance to avoid spending more money later."

"His investment acumen is better than the two of us combined. Almost every time we go out to eat, friends at the table will talk about him and subtly inquire about Mr. Fan's latest activities, probably wanting to follow the trend and find business opportunities."

"Especially those investment bankers, they're practically insane, dreaming of getting orders from President Fan and helping companies like Tudou.com, Shanzhaiwang Media, Boshi Fund, and Shanzhaiwang Fund go public."

Hear the words.

Little Ma rolled his eyes at him, mainly complaining that Vice President Ge didn't have a good eye for his investment decisions, but instead regarded Fan Wumian's investment views as gospel.

But when he thought back to when he invested in Tencent, Fan Wumian had clearly said that he would not interfere with the company's specific management. Now, even he himself was habitually following his decisions. Little Ma was even more speechless.

However, it must be admitted that from distributing online games such as World of Warcraft, KartRider, and Dungeon Fighter Online, to Tencent Weibo, WeChat launched a few months ago, and projects such as Jingdong Mall and Xianyu second-hand website, countless examples have proven that Fan Wumian's plan was indeed correct, greatly promoting the business growth of Tencent Group and freeing it from dependence on wireless value-added services from telecommunications companies.

Previously, about 30% of Tencent's revenue came from wireless value-added services in cooperation with telecommunications operators.

Since focusing on the development of internet value-added services and gaming, the proportion of wireless value-added services in Tencent's revenue has rapidly declined to single digits.

Since the launch of the mobile QQ based on IP technology, users can directly use QQ through the GPRS network, bypassing the restrictions of telecommunications operators and getting rid of dependence on the M-Network. This means that Tencent no longer needs to be dependent on others and be exploited by telecommunications operators.

These days, any business that makes money is easily coveted, and countless private enterprises are still struggling and undergoing a period of transformation.

Fan Wumian's insightful suggestions brought a significant amount of cash flow to Tencent, allowing Pony Ma and others to focus on their work without much burden and worry. If it weren't for the numerous acquisitions and financing activities, plus the overseas expansion of Tencent Weibo, which consumed a large portion of the company's funds and created considerable uncertainty, making the financial figures less impressive, Tencent's total market capitalization on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange would likely be two to three hundred billion Hong Kong dollars higher than it is now.

Because it was Fan Wumian's suggestion, Xiao Ma and Vice President Ge quickly reached an agreement. They then called several other senior executives to study the Shenzhen map and found that the east and west sides of the Shahe Golf Course were the most suitable places to build the Tencent Group headquarters.

Just do it.

That evening, Brother Ma went to the relevant authorities to inquire about the land's planning and utilization.

As the workday was drawing to a close, the person in charge of the relevant unit was surprised by the unexpected joy and acted with remarkable enthusiasm.

The vacant land west of Shahe Golf Club that Xiao Ma had originally discussed with Fan Wumian had already been sold four or five plots, so his idea of ​​enjoying the green landscape of the golf course while going to work was dashed. However, there was still more than 460 acres of land that could be planned along the Shencheng Bay coast to the east, which was similar to the area near Yanjing. It was a long and narrow piece of coastal land.

Feeling that such a large piece of land wouldn't be needed, Little Ma thought he should discuss it with Fan Wumian, but didn't give a clear answer for the time being.

Once the acquaintances who could actually make the decision arrived, the group went to a restaurant and arranged a table. After a couple of drinks, Little Ma mentioned that he wanted two more plots of land to build a private estate. He was willing to pay the land transfer fee, but he needed official help to cover it up to avoid being attacked by the crowd.

When ordinary people hear about this, they are likely to immediately think of things like "extravagance and waste" and "unequal distribution of wealth".

The representatives who discussed the matter with Little Ma immediately thought about how much help Fan Wumian would bring to local employment, tax revenue, and economic development if he settled down and lived permanently in Shenzhen.

Without Xiao Ma and Fan Wumian having to worry, the local representatives themselves enthusiastically discussed how to find a legitimate reason to transfer the land to Fan Wumian and Xiao Ma.

Someone was feeling upset about something and seized the opportunity to offer advice:

"I remember that General Manager Fan has been busy with afforestation and has made great contributions to environmental protection. Recently, there was a document that asked us to provide counterpart assistance to impoverished areas to complete desertification control and afforestation of about 10 mu of land."

"What do you think about this matter? Could you perhaps trouble General Manager Fan to lend a hand? That way, we can give him some legitimate compensation. Directly allocating a plot of land might be a bit complicated, but aren't they currently researching land reclamation and restoration? We could just add a few dozen acres, wouldn't that solve the problem?"

"Companies like Tencent and Mountain King Media are major taxpayers. Now that Mr. Ma is acquiring land with such a high investment amount, it would be unreasonable for us not to contribute something."

After Xiao Ma finished the dinner, he immediately told Fan Wumian that the land acquisition and private estate were progressing well.

Upon unexpectedly learning about the issue of combating desertification and hearing that the cost per acre is around 1 yuan, Fan Wumian recalled a lot of knowledge related to desertification control, such as straw checkerboards and photovoltaic sheep farming.

Thinking that he would donate a sum of money every year anyway, at most a few hundred million RMB, and that he didn't need to take out so much money all at once, he agreed to take over all 10 mu of desertified land without saying a word.

Early the next morning.

After receiving Fan Wumian's verbal promise, the local authorities immediately took active steps to promote the initiative.

With the promise of investing in the remediation of 10 mu of desert, acquiring land to build the Tencent Group's global headquarters building, and committing to paying no less than 30 billion RMB in taxes over the next 5 years, acquiring land to build a private estate is basically not a problem.

Fan Wumian took the lead in announcing online that he had adopted 10 mu of desert land, in order to avoid the "reward of 60 mu of land" from appearing like a transaction, which would have instead attracted a lot of criticism.

He also wrote online
—"I consulted some agricultural experts and found that black pigs have the habit of rooting in the soil, which can turn hard, compacted layers into soft soil. Their manure is also particularly fertile and helps improve soil quality."

I plan to invest 100 million RMB to initially raise 200,000 black pigs on these 100,000 mu (approximately 6,667 hectares) of desert as an experiment. I anticipate entering the pig farming industry. The organic pigs produced will be sold on the Jingdong Mall platform. Stay tuned for my good news!

The reason why pig farming was proposed first, rather than photovoltaic power generation, is that Fan Wumian has not yet laid out a photovoltaic industry plan, and the cost of investing in and building photovoltaic power plants is too high, making it unsuitable for the time being.

Pig farming is different. As long as you find a professional team to help with the feeding, you can sell the pork for profit and try to solve the problem of desertification control at the same time. In the end, you may not only not spend any money, but also make a small profit.

The Weibo post quickly went viral, sparking heated discussions among netizens. Using black pigs to combat desertification is still a very novel concept at present.

Meanwhile, some netizens were quite speechless, saying that Fan Wumian always advertises on Weibo, but since this time it's for public welfare and charity, let's give him face and order a new LCD computer monitor from Jingdong Mall. (End of this chapter)