Debuted right after graduating from high school

Chicken Bro has been quite busy lately, but his wife, Cai'er, happens to be free.

In addition, Chen Yisen, who had finally become popular in mainland China and whose life was getting smoother and smoother, had a mahjong game with three other people at Fan Wumian's house in the afternoon.

Sister Cai'er went to make herself a few cups of tea, and when she returned, she said in a surprised tone:

"Mr. Fan, your business is so big, why don't you have a single maid at home? Even many middle-class families would hire one or two Filipino maids to help take care of their lives. Do you have to do all the cooking and housework yourself?"

Fan Wumian explained:

“I used to hire a maid, but I was always busy running around and never lived in one place for long, which was inconvenient. It always felt strange to have someone else living in the house, and I lacked a quiet and private space to be alone. So I regularly hire someone to come and clean the house, and occasionally a chef comes to cook, or we just eat out.”

Chen Yisen continued:

“Such a big house, one person definitely can’t manage to clean it without help. President Fan is often away for months at a time, so there’s really no need to hire any live-in servants.”

"The environment here in Repulse Bay is so comfortable. You can only hear birds chirping outside. I'm wondering how many concerts I would need to hold to afford such a big house. My house is full of things that my wife bought. There's so much that we don't have room to put it all. I feel like she's addicted to shopping."

"But I earn money outside precisely so she can spend it."

Cai'er said enviously:

“You and your wife have such a good relationship. I bought a bag a while ago and Chun-ge said I was being wasteful, but that bag was indeed a bit expensive. We just bought a house in Dapu, and we're a little short on cash lately. If it weren't for Mr. Fan providing us with some jobs, we really wouldn't be able to make ends meet.”

It was just casual conversation while playing mahjong. Some topics weren't suitable for broadcast, so we can just edit them out.

Fan Wumian joked:

"If I had bought more of my funds back then, some of my wealth management products would have more than tripled in value. I could have easily bought a house in Mid-Levels outright. Do you regret it now?"

"After people around me get rich, it seems that the first thing they do is rush to buy houses. People often call to ask me when the housing development will start construction."

"You are like this, and so are everyone else outside. The urbanization process in the mainland is so fast, and many people want to move out of their old and small houses. It feels like the business prospects in the next 10 years are particularly great."

Chen Yisen nodded and looked at Feng Ying'er, saying:

“I saw on the news that Ms. Feng rented a new apartment in Banshan Xiaolu? It seems that Zhang Xueyou and Brigitte Lin have moved there. I am also considering whether I should rent one.”

Feng Ying'er glanced at Fan Wumian, smiled, and replied:
“I’m just renting it out for a short period of time. I met Li Jiaxin at an event last time. Xiaolu was developed by her husband’s family. It has 73 floors in total. They gave me some discounts on the rent.”

next to.

Seeing them chatting so enthusiastically about houses, Fan Wumian felt that the housing market was obviously a bit overheated. Chen Yisen was considering gritting his teeth and buying a house in Xiaolu directly, and Sister Cai'er was also a little tempted to sell her newly bought house in Dapu and rent a house in Xiaolu.

The Mid-Levels mansion, The Cullinan, which has a total of 113 units, is now valued at around HK$80 billion. The higher floors are much more expensive than the lower floors, and most of the units are kept by Li Jiaxin and her husband's family for rental income.

Fan Wumian felt that after the show aired, ordinary people might be interested in topics they wouldn't normally encounter, but there was also a risk of being resented for being rich. Celebrities make money quickly and in large amounts, which can easily attract resentment. After thinking it over, he decided not to keep this part of the content.

Changing the subject, Chen Yisen suddenly asked:

"Mr. Fan, the stock market has been falling a lot lately, and several of my friends have lost money on their investments. They even asked me for advice after we played football last time. If you had HKD 1200 million, where do you think would be the best place to invest it?"

This specific figure made Fan Wumian suspect that Chen Yisen really had HK$1200 million in cash on hand. He calmly replied:

"If you can wait, then wait. Just leave it there and earn some interest. Investing is like that – sometimes you might not make a profit for three years, but when you do, you can live off it for three. Rather than gambling on your own judgment, it's better to gamble on an improved economic environment. Of course, I have complete confidence in my company. Buy more Tencent stock now, and then just pretend you never invested that money. In 10 years, your friends will thank me."

It was initially thought that international hot money was flowing into the mainland market to make money, causing people to suffer heavy losses.

After gaining a deeper understanding of the global economic situation, Fan Wumian discovered that this was actually a matter of "choosing the lesser of two evils." The reason was that the US had been raising interest rates wildly in the past few years, which stimulated hot money to flow back to the US. Once the financial markets of other countries were overwhelmed, they would inevitably suffer severe damage, and the losses would be far more serious than the losses of stock investors.

The reason why the mainland has been able to stabilize the situation is largely due to its rapid economic development, increasingly open market, and the appreciation of the RMB stimulated by the exchange rate reform, which has attracted a large influx of cross-border hot money into the mainland, offsetting the negative impact of the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes.

With the US raising interest rates, money is pouring into the mainland like crazy. This has suddenly rendered the US's three-pronged approach to exploiting developing countries ineffective. The US domestic liquidity has been drained, causing its own housing and stock markets to teeter on the brink of collapse, with major problems emerging everywhere. The asset bubble built on leverage on Wall Street has no buyers and is gradually heading towards a financial tsunami.

Looking at the results, it becomes clear that when China joined the WTO in 2001, its total foreign exchange reserves were only around US$2000 billion, all of which was hard-earned money accumulated by people tightening their belts and saving every penny.

In just a few short years, foreign exchange reserves have exceeded US$1.5 trillion, and the international trade surplus is expected to exceed US$2600 billion. Apart from the continuous decline of A-shares, other markets are thriving.

This made Fan Wumian feel like he was worrying about something that wasn't his business, but he not only prevented countless stock investors from going bankrupt, but also helped fund clients preserve their wealth, so it wasn't entirely a wasted effort.

Other asset management companies suffered sharp declines in performance and struggled in the mire, while he calmly held cash and waited. Although the companies under his management earned much less money this year, he gained reputation, trust and some other intangible benefits.

For example, following Huaxia Petroleum, Huaxia Investment Co., Ltd., which was just established this year with a registered capital of up to 2000 billion US dollars, also took the initiative to extend an olive branch last month, hoping to bring Fan Wumian together to form a new company and jointly manage 100 billion US dollars in assets.

Of China Investment Corporation's $2000 billion in assets, 50% is planned to be invested in the international market, and it has recently reached cooperation agreements with multinational giants such as Morgan Stanley and Blackstone Group.

Fan Wumian also submitted a proposal to invest the $100 billion in Silicon Valley internet companies and related fields such as mobile smart terminal devices, including companies like TISC, ASML, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Apple, and Google.

Whether it will work out or not is unclear at the moment. However, according to the preliminary cooperation plan reached with Huatou, once the joint venture is successfully established, Fan Wumian can receive an annual salary plus a 1% management fee.

The income wasn't huge, but it proved the trust and care some people had for him. Fan Wumian's main idea was to use this money to help people earn more for medical insurance, pensions, and so on. If the funds successfully grew to a hundred billion dollars, he could collect 10 billion dollars in management fees every year, which would be pretty good. Upon hearing this, Chen Yisen joked:
"You really have no modesty at all, directly sending people to invest in your Tencent."

Fan Wumian said while arranging the cards:

"If you can make money just by buying it, wouldn't it be great to teach everyone how to make money easily? The future will definitely be the era of smartphones, and that will be the real spring for internet companies. I wouldn't be too surprised if Tencent's market value exceeds HK$1 trillion one day."

After chatting for a while, the topic changed again, and they talked about Andy Lau, who became an international sensation because of "Project Gutenberg".

Chen Yisen touched his face and asked Fan Wumian:
“I feel that I have some potential as an actor, but I rarely come across scripts that suit me. Mr. Fan, would you consider arranging a project for me like ‘Project Gutenberg’?”

Fan Wumian laughed:
"I'm currently working on some zombie-themed post-apocalyptic dramas, but unfortunately, it's very difficult for such works to pass censorship and be released."

“I recently started a video website company called ‘Myth+’ in Hollywood, which is like an international version of Tudou. In the early stages, we will be short of content. If any Asian film and television companies are interested, they can try to cooperate with me.”

"If this platform develops, it should be quite interesting. It would provide many companies with a new channel for profit, but it must be suitable for the international market. Brother Yisen, Sister Cai'er, and Brother Shanji can all join one of my new projects. The content is roughly about earning prize money. Participants will participate in various competitions, and if they fail, they will be eliminated."

Feng Ying'er quickly asked, "What about me? If there are many people participating, you should be able to arrange a role for me, right?"

Fan Wumian said with a smile:
“Your English is good, so of course you can give it a try. Hong Kong entertainment has declined in recent years, so perhaps stepping into the international market is a chance to turn things around.”

"As for Japan and South Korea, I will also try to acquire a few companies and produce some interesting new dramas."

"History and detective dramas from mainland China are also quite good and have a large market in Asia. A few days ago, I had dinner with executives from Paramount, Universal, and Time Warner in Hollywood and proposed a business collaboration. I don't know if they will agree yet."

The Myth+ video website project, which is currently in the planning stages, is only an empty shell and will lack video content in its early stages of development.

The strict censorship in the Chinese entertainment industry prevents many things from being filmed. This prompted Fan Wumian to come up with the idea of ​​building film and television production bases in Hong Kong and Japan and South Korea, respectively, to mass-produce some distinctive and low-cost works and exclusively release them on the Myth+ platform to attract users.

We need to invest in some projects in the United States, but we can't put all the projects in the United States to avoid excessive costs and burning through the $10 billion in start-up capital that Fan Wumian planned to put out in advance.

Filming the same script in Hong Kong, Japan, or South Korea might only cost one-tenth of what it would cost to produce in the United States, and it would also add a touch of exoticism, helping Western audiences rediscover a sense of novelty.

Therefore, Fan Wumian plans to use tens of millions of US dollars to finance or acquire several Japanese and South Korean entertainment companies after the financial crisis next year. Well-known companies such as SM and JYP Entertainment are on his target list.

The reason for specifically mentioning the Myth+ project is to give it a heads-up and attract the attention of residents in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. The media can't possibly miss something this big, and it might even pique the interest of some Asian groups in Europe and America in the Myth+ video website.

After playing mahjong for more than two hours, Chen Yisen had the most chips at the end. In the evening, the group went to Stanley to enjoy seafood.

After filming a reality show all day, there's more than enough material to edit into two episodes.

After the event, Fan Wumian returned home, and Feng Ying'er followed him. The two were finally able to let down their guard and rest together for a while.

By the way, let's also talk about Chen Yisen, this doting husband. Just how extravagant is his wife when she spends money? According to media reports, she spent HK$80 in just one hour.

After changing into her swimsuit and swimming to digest her food, Feng Ying'er became restless and insisted on dragging Fan Wumian to take a bath together.
It was early the next morning.

Feng Ying'er left as soon as she woke up, and soon the film crew came again to prepare to shoot an episode about sightseeing, eating and drinking in the port city, with Fan Wumian in charge of finding street food.

After calling Uncle Da, Chan Pak-cheung, and Lai Yiu-cheung to invite them to come out and record a program with him, Chan Pak-cheung even called out football team member Law Ka-ying after he arrived, clearly wanting to help his friend find job opportunities.

This resulted in Fan Wumian being surrounded by several Hong Kong celebrities, attracting a lot of attention when he walked down the street.

After eating crystal buns, crab roe buns, wonton noodles, and other dishes at a tea restaurant, Fan Wumian originally planned to take a boat to the Lisboa Hotel in Macau to learn how to make the Emperor's Fried Rice, which costs HK$5000 a bowl, from Chef Dai Long. However, an accident occurred on the way to the pier: the car Fan Wumian was in collided with a helicopter.

Model airplane toy helicopter.

It was over a meter long and smashed the windshield and hood.

Fan Wumian's bodyguards were extremely nervous, thinking they had finally gotten a chance to show off their skills. They surrounded him, urging him to go into the building next door, worried that the toy helicopter had been modified and might suddenly explode.

It took quite a while for the chaotic scene to calm down.

Just as Uncle Da, Luo Jiaying, and the others were discussing amongst themselves, a middle-aged man wearing glasses arrived with several young men, cupped his hands in apology, and said:

"I'm so sorry! I'm really sorry! We were testing this model drone and taking some pictures of Victoria Harbour when it seemed to hit some power lines and suddenly went out of control. I'm a professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, so I'll cover any losses. I hope no one was hurt?"

Uncle Da patted his chest and said irritably:
"Playing with airplanes on the street and flying them around is dangerous. Do you know who's in the car? Fan Wumian and I almost got killed by you guys."

Fan Wumian finally realized that it really was just an accident. His gaze lingered on a square-faced young man wearing glasses next to the professor, and he felt that the man looked somewhat familiar.

The professor from the University of Science and Technology looked at the crowd and continued:

"My students are researching drone flight control systems. Mr. Fan, Mr. Wu, I'm sorry to trouble you. Is this a movie shoot?"

Upon hearing the drone flight control system, Fan Wumian glanced at the square-faced young man with glasses, his eyes filled with surprise. He felt that the other man looked somewhat like the owner of Dajiang Drone Company.

(End of this chapter)