Debuted right after graduating from high school

Chinese people love to watch a spectacle.

Seeing the accident on the roadside, surrounded by a group of men in suits, some Hong Kong residents were not surprised and thought that a gang had resurfaced and was causing trouble in public.

I was wondering who was making such a big fuss, but when I saw Fan Wumian in the crowd, I knew there was no problem at all.

It seems like Fan Wumian successfully crossed the threshold of becoming a "billionaire family" not long ago, but in the blink of an eye, his net worth has soared again.

According to the latest Forbes Global Rich List, Fan Wumian's latest net worth is approximately US$90 billion, which is much more reliable than the US$45 billion previously announced by Hurun and has gained widespread recognition.

His stakes in Paulson & Rogers hedge funds are valued at approximately $40 billion, and when combined with Valentino, the total value is approximately $50 billion.

In addition to its shares in Tencent Holdings, valued at approximately HK$460 billion, as well as Tudou.com, Shanzhaiwang Media, Myth Film Studio, Shanzhaiwang Fund, Bosera Fund, Marvel Entertainment, Land Rover, and Aston Martin, after deducting substantial bank loans, the estimated net assets of US$90 billion are not unreasonable.

This year, companies such as WM-Rogers Hedge Fund and Gangcheng Mountain Bandit King Fund have successfully helped some users earn returns of 300% or even 400% or more. Fan Wumian, the boss of the company, has earned even more from this, and his wealth is snowballing with an astonishing increase.

For a wealthy man like him, it would be unreasonable for him not to travel with more bodyguards, as people might think he could be kidnapped or run into enemies.

At this moment.

Luo Jiaying, who played Tang Sanzang in "A Chinese Odyssey," acted as a peacemaker, saying:

"It's alright, just an accident. Thank goodness nothing serious happened. They must have studied engineering machinery or something to make such a detailed toy helicopter, right?"

The leading professor replied:

"Yes, my name is Li Xiangze. I teach in the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. These are all my students."

"This is Wang Tao. Before graduating from university, he worked on his graduation project, developing a drone flight control system with his classmates. Later, he also pursued graduate studies with me. The things he created were very interesting, and he has already started his own business in Shenzhen."

“You’re all actors, and sometimes you need to use aerial footage, right? Renting helicopters is expensive and troublesome now, so using drones for aerial filming is much better. This is a very promising market, and it even has the potential to be used in the military field.”

"In the past, soldiers had to go into battle personally, which resulted in a high casualty rate. Switching to drones makes things much more convenient. Using drones to carry grenades to attack the enemy battlefield is more humane."

"I wonder if Mr. Fan has some free time? If we have the chance to sit down and chat, I can recommend a few promising projects to you. Wang Tao's drone company was incubated by me, and recently many companies abroad have also been developing similar technologies."

After listening to Professor Li Xiangze's words, Luo Jiaying's lips twitched. Uncle Da and Chen Baixiang were speechless. How could using a drone to carry grenades and rush into the enemy battlefield have anything to do with the word "humanity"?

Fan Wumian was both amused and exasperated upon hearing this.

He was well aware of the future market size for drones. He recalled that DaJiang was valued at over 100 billion RMB, and its products were used in military, agriculture, aerial photography, scientific research, and other fields.

Just as he was wondering if there was a chance to get involved, the other party unexpectedly extended an olive branch first. So Fan Wumian pretended to be calm and replied:

"Let's talk about it when we have time. You can leave your contact information with me. As for the car repairs, I'll handle it myself. I'll just talk to the insurance company. It won't cost much."

Professor Li Xiangze always carried business cards with him, and he respectfully handed one to him.

Seeing his mentor speaking eloquently in front of Fan Wumian, the tech geek Wang Tao, who was terrified, felt genuine admiration. Before, he had only been thinking about how much money he would lose and had not considered "seizing the opportunity to seek financing" at all.

Not being good at these things is only one aspect. Another reason is that Dajiang UAV Company currently does not have any truly competitive products, and its presence is pitifully low. Only a few thousand helicopter model enthusiasts in the market pay attention to Wang Tao.

He left school last year to start his own business in Shenzhen. However, due to the company's inability to secure orders and the resulting shortage of funds, his two close friends who had started the business with him soon left to seek better opportunities elsewhere.

Fortunately, with the help of Professor Li Xiangze and the additional 50 RMB provided by others, a new batch of employees was recruited this year to develop a helicopter flight control system with functions such as hovering and beyond visual range. Unexpectedly, just as it was brought to Gangcheng to demonstrate to Professor Li Xiangze, another accident occurred.

The model helicopter that was smashed on the car was fuel-powered, not the multi-rotor drone that Fan Wumian remembered. It's clear that Wang Tao's research and development direction has gone wrong, and it will be difficult for him to open up the market.

Even when others encounter an opportunity, they may not be able to clearly realize its potential.

Fan Wumian, on the other hand, instantly made up his mind to bring Wang Tao under his wing, as if he had encountered a windfall and there was no reason for him to let it go.

But he was busy filming a reality show, and since he knew that if he went out in person, people would overcharge him, he didn't talk much and decided to wait a while before continuing. Seeing that he had already caused traffic congestion, he changed cars and continued to the pier.

Upon arriving at the pier, on the ferry journey to Macau, Uncle Da encouraged Law Ka-ying to sing a few lines of the theme song "A Lifetime of Love" from "A Chinese Odyssey," reminiscing about some details from filming the movie, which would add a lot of highlights to the program.

More than an hour passed quickly.

After landing, Fan Wumian first took them to visit the research and development studios of Valentino and Fei Le, and jokingly mentioned that the residential building that was originally bought for office use has now doubled in value.

In addition, there is a temporary Land Rover R&D center where foreign design engineers have just made a model of the entry-level "Evoque" SUV out of clay. They also took the opportunity of filming a program to showcase it in advance and raise awareness of the Land Rover brand.

It wasn't until nearly noon that the group arrived at the Old Lisboa Hotel to learn how to make "Emperor's Fried Rice" from Chef Dai.

This fried rice, which sells for 5000 yuan, is very complicated to make.

Wash the prawns, devein them by cutting along the back, then stuff the rice into the prawns, arrange them in rows, and steam until cooked.

Next, take out the rice. Every grain of rice is full of flavor. Stew it with ingredients such as hen, ham, and pork bones, and only keep the broth after stewing. Finally, use premium abalone, bird's nest and other ingredients to make Emperor Fried Rice.

The ingredients were luxurious, and the cooking process was quite interesting. However, if you disregard the expensive ingredients like abalone sauce and bird's nest, the Emperor's Fried Rice was merely delicious. Fan Wumian still felt it needed some pickled vegetables to be truly flavorful. Since they were already there, the group went to explore the casino. While filming was prohibited for everyone else, Fan Wumian was an exception. The manager even designated a special area for them to film their segment and gave each of them HK$5 in chips.

Uncle Da, who had gambled himself into bankruptcy in his early years and even went to Chow Yun-fat to borrow money, was very knowledgeable about all kinds of card games and equipment. He found a blackjack table and they all played together for entertainment.

Fan Wumian pretended to be a gambling god, but after rubbing the playing cards for a long time, it was all in vain; he still lost.

After returning the chips given to me by the casino manager to the hotel, it was already past 8 p.m. I continued to stroll around the streets for a while, planning to have some late-night snacks before returning to the city.

While strolling around, I passed by a bathhouse.

Several girls were handing out flyers outside. There were fair-skinned young girls in kimonos, blonde and blue-eyed foreign women, and sexy and alluring fashionistas.

Fan Wumian had long heard that Macau's "bathing culture" was particularly developed, but he had never actually seen it before. He couldn't help but glance at it a few more times, thinking that it was no wonder that so many people would flock to Macau. This kind of decadent and extravagant place was something that most men couldn't resist.

To attract customers, some girls wear mesh tops that reveal glimpses of their skin, making it seem as if they're not wearing anything at all.

Chen Baixiang, taking it as an amusing anecdote, suddenly told:
“A screenwriter friend of mine contacted me before, saying he wanted to write a script with the male lead being a ‘King of Gigolos’, and asked me if there was any market for it.”

"I was completely stunned after hearing that. I never imagined that anyone would be interested in such an obscure topic?"

"But then I thought about it again and realized that precisely because it's a niche genre, with few films made about it, it has the potential to become a box office hit. If Mr. Fan is interested, I can recommend that screenwriter to you."

I vaguely remember seeing similar Hong Kong films before. Considering the topic was a bit sensitive, Fan Wumian gestured for filming to stop before speaking:
"The subject matter is interesting, but it's very difficult to make a good film unless it's turned into an erotic film, but then it will be difficult to enter several major markets."

“Investing in a low-budget comedy film in Hollywood does have some chance of success, but the problem is that there are tens of thousands of scripts registered in Hollywood, which is simply not enough to film them all, so there is no need to risk investing in such a sensitive subject matter.”

"What would be most suitable is to make it into an American TV series, depicting the lives of the American underclass. If we were to interweave some crime, romance, and borderline plots, and make it like 'Breaking Bad,' perhaps some viewers would like it."

Many people, even if they come up with good ideas, are unable to put them into practice.

Fan Wumian had resources, channels, and money. After saying that, he wrote down the words "America's King of Ducks" in his phone's notes app, intending to find a screenwriter to try writing a script about it.

Seeing the cameramen turn off their cameras, Uncle Da and Chen Baixiang couldn't wait to take out cigarettes from their pockets, move a little further away from Fan Wumian, and start puffing away.

Lai Yiu-cheung, who has played classic roles such as "Pigsy" and "Zhou Botong," continued:

“The censorship in mainland China is extremely strict. If you’re not careful, you won’t be able to pass the review. It’s really impossible to film this kind of subject matter in Hong Kong.”

Fan Wumian sighed:

"Yes, back in the day, many Hong Kong screenwriters would write about outlaws and prostitutes coming from the north. They probably never imagined that the mainland market would become so big that they would have to beg for a living."

“I bought the online rights to TBV and Shaw Brothers’ film libraries, as well as a bunch of TV dramas. A lot of the content needs to be modified. All the plots involving mainland China have been replaced with those of Myanmar, Indonesia, and the Philippines, otherwise something will happen sooner or later.”

"The digital restoration technology for film is much more advanced than it was two years ago. Now Tudou.com has hired hundreds of people specifically to help me convert and restore these old works."

In the past, people mainly watched dramas on TV and DVDs, which was often intermittent and caused them to miss a lot of content.

After the source material was restored and uploaded online, classic Hong Kong dramas such as the 1996 version of "Journey to the West" starring Wayne Lai, as well as the 2002 version of "The Monkey King," "Gods of Honour," the "Forensic Heroes" series, and the "Armed Reaction" series, became extremely popular on Tudou.com.

Online streaming is still not smooth enough, with severe buffering issues. However, a few months ago, Tencent acquired Xunlei, and Tudou.com has partnered with Xunlei to support high-speed downloads and offline caching. This has led to a significant increase in Tudou.com's paid memberships, with membership revenue expected to exceed 5 million RMB this year.

Platforms like QQ Membership, QQ Music Membership, Tudou.com, and Xunlei offer discounts for bundled purchases, aiming for low profit margins and high sales volume. They try to keep prices down to a level that young netizens can generally accept, since making less money is better than completely driving customers to pirated platforms.

With the acquisition of Qidian.com, the entire Tencent Internet ecosystem has basically taken shape. The mutual cooperation and traffic generation among the various entities is indeed much more efficient than a single company going it alone.

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That night, he returned to Hong Kong and had another tryst with Fung Ying-yee.

After two tiring days, he originally wanted to rest, but seeing her wearing stockings and wriggling on the bed, Fan Wumian watched several times and finally couldn't resist, so he gave her a good scolding.

When they met up with the reality show crew again in the morning, the director asked Fan Wumian, "Mr. Fan, what are you planning to film today?"

After considering it, Fan Wumian replied:
"How about I show everyone what my daily work is like? Or maybe we can record a new song?"

The program director said:
"They're all great, but I think people are more interested in your work. Other variety shows can't usually invite big bosses with assets of tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars. Including myself, we always feel that your work is very mysterious. Do you deal with hundreds of millions of dollars every minute and experience exciting business battles?"

Fan Wumian chuckled and shook his head, explaining:
"Actually, it's not that mysterious. It's just business. What I admire most are the scientific researchers who forge swords for the country. A few months ago, I wrote a script called 'Meritorious Service,' which should be released as a tribute to the Olympics."

"I was delayed by filming a reality show a couple of days ago, so I have hundreds more emails to process in my inbox. The reason I set up a family office and a secretary's office is that I have too much work to do every day, and I simply can't handle it all by myself."

"Thinking back, things were better before. Without cell phones and computers, people simply went home after get off work; no one would suddenly call to assign new tasks or interfere with their private lives after get off work. But I'm the boss now, and I've made it this far, so the pressure isn't as great."

(End of this chapter)