Debuted right after graduating from high school

Amid the looming financial crisis, since the subprime mortgage crisis erupted last year, the entire market has rapidly entered a downturn. Even many high-performing internet projects have struggled to secure funding and have had to make numerous concessions.

Under such circumstances, Fan Wumian still took out his money to invest, so many things were naturally easy to discuss.

For example, the acquisition of a 39% stake in Alibaba from Yahoo, coupled with the temptation to hold a huge amount of cash to weather the economic downturn, led to a serious misjudgment by Yahoo's board of directors.

Since Yahoo founder Jerry Yang returned to the CEO position last June, he has been ambitious and eager to make some new moves. He previously rejected Microsoft's record-breaking $44 billion acquisition offer, and the money from the sale of Alibaba shares alone is exactly what Yang needs.

Unfortunately, he was a bit unlucky and had limited vision. He rejected Microsoft's acquisition offer at the beginning of the year. When the financial crisis broke out in the second half of the year, Yahoo's market value would probably plummet. At that time, he would most likely have to use Jerry Yang as a sacrificial lamb to appease the anger of shareholders and other major shareholders.

Regardless, Fan Wumian's goal has been achieved.

Having acquired 39% of Alibaba's shares, he likely won't easily reduce or sell them for at least 20 years. With Tencent in one hand and Alibaba in the other, plus investments in numerous startups, he has essentially secured half of the mainland's internet market.

While Alibaba Group's returns may not be the highest, it can greatly enhance Fan Wumian's soft power in mainland China. In the future, tens of millions of e-commerce workers, couriers, food delivery workers, and programmers will be working under him, ensuring his stable position in the industry. This is also very meaningful, allowing him to pursue a sense of "self-actualization."

Regarding overseas investment projects, TESCO, with a current market value of around US$400 billion, Broadcom, with a market value of around US$280 billion, Nvidia, with a market value of around US$43 billion, and Facebook, with a valuation of around US$140 billion, have all become targets of Fan Wumian's heavy investment.

He didn't have much money of his own, and he was already struggling after acquiring Alibaba shares. However, he was able to collect performance-based commissions at different levels for helping private equity investors make money.

With his business reaching this scale, it's no wonder that countless businessmen flocked to Beijing for sightseeing before the Olympics, trying to catch a glimpse of Fan Wumian, resulting in his daily schedule being packed with meals and meetings.

August 7th, the day before the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

Late at night, Fan Wumian took Zuo Ziyan to visit the special exhibition hall of the museum. Several pieces of porcelain that he had acquired at a high price half a year ago were now on display here, and the number of pieces had increased.

Since the episode of "Walking with Fan Wumian" about buying antiques aired, many collectors from home and abroad have taken the initiative to contact him, and some of the items are of such high quality that he cannot refuse them.

Examples include the Yuan blue-and-white plum vase depicting Xiao He chasing Han Xin under the moon, the Ru kiln sky-blue glazed washer, the Yuan blue-and-white large jar depicting Wu Song fighting the tiger, the Qing Qianlong imperial polychrome carved porcelain large revolving vase with phoenixes, and the late Shang dynasty bronze square zun with taotie patterns, etc.

There are thousands of sellers who have found Fan Wumian, but he only buys these exquisite national treasure-level items from collectors.

Standing in front of the bulletproof glass display case, Fan Wumian pointed to the porcelain inside and introduced it:
"The Yuan Dynasty blue-glazed white dragon-patterned plum vase is extremely rare. I finally managed to get it from the Guimet Museum in France, and I plan to acquire it through legitimate channels, along with the late Shang Dynasty bronze elephant-shaped zun mentioned earlier."

“I don’t really want to spend money on items that were passed down from my early years, but if I like them, that’s another matter.”

"We recently privatized and delisted Fenjiu Company, which will cost about 55 billion RMB in total. We want to launch a few high-end products. This blue bottle with a white dragon pattern is quite beautiful, and we can use it as a prototype to fire a batch of bottles. In addition, there are celestial globe bottles and gourd bottles, which I feel are quite distinctive and look high-end and elegant."

Zuo Ziyan accompanied him on the tour, smiling broadly as she told him:
"It's obvious you've really struck it rich. Any one of your items could be enough to feed someone for the rest of their life."

"You have a good eye; most of your collection is beautiful. However, the cost of wine bottles is so high, so your profit margin can't compete with your competitors, can it?"

"I recently discovered that the clothing designs I painstakingly commissioned to create are quickly appearing on street stalls, priced even lower than my cost price."

Fan Wumian smiled and shook his head, saying:
"Mass-produced bottles are worthless, but alcoholic beverages are extremely profitable, almost like luxury goods. I estimate that products like real estate, pharmaceuticals, liquor, and photovoltaics in mainland China will soon experience a major boom, so I'll make some investments in them."

“Ah Yan, you’re a celebrity. Countless young people are obsessed with and idolize you. Of course, your fast fashion brand is easily infringed upon, and this is a difficult problem to solve completely.”

"My PhilharTex shoes and Valentino handbags are also being sold in counterfeit versions everywhere. They're checked today and sold again tomorrow. It's impossible to manage them all."

Zuo Ziyan's fast-fashion brand has already opened more than 20 stores in Europe, as well as in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and other places. It is in a phase of rapid expansion. With the support of her parents and Fan Wumian, she has no problem with funding and is developing very well.

She said helplessly:

“I know that, but it’s still a headache. I feel like we should enter the mainland market sooner, otherwise the brand will be ruined very quickly.”

Fan Wumian just smiled. Since the beginning of this year, Zuo Ziyan has been busy with her business and hasn't had time to contact him even during holidays.

This gave him ample time to continue maintaining his "little fishpond." Because of his participation in the Olympic opening ceremony, Yang Mi, Guo Biting, and Zhang Liangying were all in Beijing these past few days, leaving Fan Wumian unable to spare the time for a secret rendezvous.

After visiting the museum's special exhibition hall, Zuo Ziyan went back to the hotel to find her parents, while Fan Wumian couldn't wait to get home and call Jessica.

Upon learning that there were no signs of labor, Fan Wumian was filled with anxiety and uncertainty. Around 9 p.m., Liu Yifei came to knock on his door, saying that they were one player short for a mahjong game and asking if he was free.

Many celebrities live near Fan Wumian's home, partly because they want to have more contact with him. Since he had nothing else to do, Fan Wumian simply went to play mahjong with Liu Yifei, Huang Xiaoming, and Liu Tao, saying that he happened to run into them at a gathering today, and that they had all acted in "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils", so they had a small get-together to liven things up.

Liu Tao, who played "Mazu", got married last year and spent 4 million RMB to hold a grand wedding in January this year. As a result, this actress gave up her booming career and began to settle down as a full-time housewife.

Aside from Fan Wumian, probably no one would have imagined that her wealthy husband would go bankrupt so soon.

When Huang Xiaoming saw that Liu Yifei could call Fan Wumian over, he assumed that Fan Wumian had a crush on her. During the mahjong game, he even joked that the two of them were good-looking and looked like a perfect couple.

Fan Wumian just smiled. If he were to have another flirtatious thought, he might as well call Da Bingbing for help to put out the fire. At least she was shrewd and sensible. All he needed to do was provide some resources, and he wouldn't have to worry about being entangled with her.

His expression was nonchalant, but Liu Yifei seemed to take it to heart. She secretly glanced at Fan Wumian several times, slightly disappointed, and then started talking about the new drama.

Nothing happened that night.

The next day, the internet was flooded with news about the Olympics. Some said that the clouds around Beijing had been artificially brought down to ensure a perfect opening ceremony that night.

Some people complained that the management was too strict and that it interfered with their work. Other tourists complained that they had queued for several hours and that there were crowds everywhere at the attractions.

Having already experienced it once, Fan Wumian wasn't too excited. He was only curious whether his influence would cause any new changes at the Olympic opening ceremony.

In the morning, I continued to be busy with business negotiations. At noon, I had lunch with Zuo Ziyan, her parents, and Mr. Wang from Wanda Group. In the afternoon, I went to Tianjing to learn about the Tianjing 117 Building, which had just started construction.

To be honest, Fan Wumian was not optimistic about this building. The reason he took a 15% stake was only for some other reasons. He had reached an agreement with the local government and hoped to use it as a springboard to enter other projects, including Bohai Bank, ports, logistics, auto parts, and so on.

Arriving back at the Bird's Nest in Yanjing in the evening, Fan Wumian arrived early, met many people, and talked about many things.

Jack Long, Andy Lau, and Stephen Chow all came, as did Mark Gor and Jack Ma. Fan Wumian got a lot of tickets with excellent seats and distributed them all to his executives and artists.

Before we knew it, it was 8 p.m., and the opening ceremony officially began. Overall, it still had the familiar feel, with only some changes in the details.

Amidst the cheers of the audience, fireworks rained down like stars, illuminating the entire night sky. The giant Olympic rings slowly rose from the ground, and some spectators were even moved to tears.

In my memory, the period before and after 2008 was like a clear watershed. The impoverished lives of countless people seemed to suddenly become much more comfortable. The prices of mobile phones, cars, LCD TVs, and computers became more affordable, and their international status also rose accordingly.

After so many years of economic development, a qualitative change has begun to emerge from quantitative change. In his previous life, he was too busy studying to feel it much, but in recent years, Fan Wumian has felt it quite deeply.

While watching the show, my mind wandered, and I thought about a lot of things. During this time, I unexpectedly thought of the sci-fi movie "In Time". The protagonist in the movie still had the habit of running faster after entering the rich area, and it was difficult for him to change his habits in a short time.

Fan Wumian felt the same way. When he realized that even if he continued to work hard, his life could not be much better than it was now, he felt that it was time to slow down, change his mindset, and try to experience a more relaxed and leisurely semi-retirement life.

Based on his current asset allocation, barring any major unforeseen events, his total net worth will be at least $1 trillion in 20 years. He earns money far faster than he spends it, and he already has almost nothing he lacks.

After watching the performance and listening to Zhang Liangying sing "As You Wish," I wasn't too excited because what others saw as a highlight was just a new beginning for Fan Wumian. I was simply happy because of the emotions around me.

The huge footsteps could be seen on TV, but not on site. During this time, an executive in charge of the Bird's Nest project came to ask Fan Wumian how his considerations were going, and said that he had already started asking people to find a way to apply for changes to the land planning around the Bird's Nest.

Fan Wumian only said that if the application could be approved, he would be willing to help acquire the Bird's Nest. He also complained and played the victim, saying that the loan interest was too high and it tied up too much capital.

Including temporary seating, the Bird's Nest can accommodate a total of 9.1 people. With such a large stadium, as long as it is well-planned, it clearly has a bright future.

After talking with the person in charge, Fan Wumian also considered the preparation of a football league, hoping to make good use of the Bird's Nest in the future by creating some large-scale sports events, and selling more tickets to recoup funds, just like the NBA league.

Since certain departments are unreliable, Fan Wumian only wants to bypass supervision and attract various companies to participate. Since he has to spend money on advertising anyway, he might as well let people invest the advertising money in the team.

The remaining revenue will come from holding concerts and attracting tourists, so the overall income should be quite good. In addition, it can also be used to rename the Bird's Nest and advertise for its affiliated companies.

For example, New China Life Insurance Group has proven that as long as the right projects are invested in, doing insurance business in mainland China is indeed more profitable than doing asset management business. In the first half of this year, New China Life Insurance's net profit reached about 18 billion RMB.

This is just the beginning. Once the real estate and infrastructure markets boom and the stock market rebounds from its trough, Xinhua Insurance Group will definitely be able to make a fortune in a short period of time.

After much deliberation, Fan Wumian decided that it would be most appropriate to hang the "Xinhua Insurance · Bird's Nest" sponsored billboard for a few years first. After saying goodbye to everyone after the event, he left early and went home.

In the following days, when the competition officially began, he went to the venue to watch the events that interested him and personally presented prize money to several medal winners.

After the initial excitement wore off, everyone went back to their own business. Fan Wumian finally received news from Zovin Rogers that Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac were experiencing unusual activity, with major shareholders selling off their shares at low prices.

After tormenting the global economy for so long with a dull knife, the dawn of a short, sharp pain is finally in sight. Fan Wumian continues to delegate authority, handing over the work to senior executives and only letting his family office handle short selling, not letting go of individual stocks, stock indices, or financial derivatives.

Unfortunately, others also started to move, and Fan Wumian only managed to grab a small number of chips.

On August 18th, he finally received a photo from Jessica Alba. He stared at the unfamiliar little guy for a long time and thought he was a bit ugly, all wrinkled from being soaked, and his skin color was strange.

After becoming a father, Fan Wumian felt restless and had a very strange feeling.

After asking, he learned that he wouldn't have a chance to visit the baby recently because paparazzi were staking out the hospital. He wasn't in a hurry, and just took the opportunity to video call her and look at his daughter carefully again.

A few days passed like this.

The baby's skin color has returned to normal, and his appearance has become more endearing. He has long eyelashes and black hair, and there are no obvious mixed-race features yet. It is said that he occasionally opens his eyes to look at things.

Becoming a father felt surreal, and it took a few days to process it before things slowly came to a clearer understanding. Counting the days, he realized the financial crisis was probably coming soon. Fan Wumian couldn't resist and flew to Los Angeles again.

Taking advantage of Jessica taking the baby for a check-up, Fan Wumian saw the little one for the first time. He was so tense that he held his little girl stiffly for a while.

He then pointed to the contract on the table. He had prepared gifts in advance, using the name of a shell company in the Cayman Islands, to give his youngest daughter Apple stock worth $2000 million, a mansion in the Bel Air area of ​​Hollywood, and "Little Pipe Island" in the Bahamas, with a total value of approximately $6000 million.

Jessica was stunned, while Fan Wumian's mind was entirely on his daughter, busy stroking her little face until she cried, at which point he hurriedly handed her back to Jessica. (End of Chapter)