Back to the prime of life

Chapter 223 Shock
After Xu Weiguo was promoted, he became even busier. He said he would find a time, but it wasn't something that could be arranged overnight, especially since he had just been given a new position and had a long line of people to meet.

Lu Changge and he were already quite familiar with each other, so she simply waited and didn't want to put him in a difficult position regarding time. This was also a sign of their close relationship.

Shortly after, he received another call from Wang Hongcheng, who said mysteriously, "You've heard, haven't you?"

He was just being mysterious; actually, this guy was the one who was truly happy.

After all, he had many specific matters that required Xu Weiguo's help, especially since the city leader Xu Weiguo served was in charge of housing and construction. It was like delivering a pillow to someone who was sleepy.

Later, Lu Changge met with him at the Zhao family's gatehouse.

During the conversation, he asked, "Don't be surprised, let me finish. I want to talk to Lao Xu about something. I'm thinking of selling Lu Mang. Do you have any suggestions?"

"What?!" Wang Hongcheng couldn't believe it.

"I told you not to be surprised, control yourself! Shouting so loudly, are you afraid the neighbors won't hear you?!"

"What were you thinking?! You could come up with this decision, and you still want to talk to Lao Xu about it? What do you think his expression will be when he hears this?"

"Of course I understand, but I have my reasons."

Wang Hongcheng knew Lu Changge somewhat, and in his opinion, while the young man often made surprising moves, there was always a reason behind them. After calming down and thinking it over, he said, "Do you think it's possible that now that he's been transferred, showing off might not be as important to him anymore?"

"What do you mean?"

"On the one hand, he's powerful now. Do you know how many resources he can mobilize? Although Lu Mang seems good, compared to the resources he can mobilize, he may not be that important. Since it's not a serious blow, he won't have any major issues with you."

Furthermore, it depends on what you do in the future. If you become increasingly successful, he won't care what you sell. But if you take a sum of money and then just coast along, he'll definitely be cursing you in his dreams. Remember how they connected you with suppliers and provided guarantees, and in the end you retired early?

Wang Hongcheng rambled on, but there were some gems in those ramblings.

Yes, there is certainly an element of 'acquaintance' in their relationship, but they are not actually that close. Ultimately, it's just a relationship of mutual exploitation. They're adults, so this is quite normal.

In other words, as long as he still has value, nothing else matters.

"So, can you answer me now? If you really sell Lu Mang, what will you do with the money?" Wang Hongcheng's eyes suddenly lit up. "How about you invest in our Xingkong Real Estate?"

"You're quite the thinker." Lu Changge didn't even bother to retort. He was still pondering what had just happened and had made up his mind to find some time to talk about it.

"I'm asking you something."

"Don't rush. What we're going to do in the future can't be explained in just a few words, and we don't even know how much money it will make. But anyway... I still want to do something different. You'll see when the time comes."

"Oh, so you're keeping it a secret now."

Because Lu Changge didn't want to hear him say things like electric cars are just a bluff, all talk and no action.

But he did resolve a deep-seated concern. Besides that, he also considered introducing some e-commerce entrepreneur friends to Jiangzhou, even if it was just to set up a branch, which would offset the negative impact of selling Lumang. ...

……

By the end of 2009, rumors did begin to circulate in the market, and many stakeholders and even those in the news media began to inquire whether the information about Lu Mang's sale was true.

There's a saying that there's no smoke without fire. These rumors are circulating everywhere, and the fact that Lumang's official account hasn't come out to deny them is itself an answer.

After the New Year, in 2010, right after the Spring Festival, a bombshell announcement hit the internet.

With the help of Titanium Capital and DST, the only well-known e-commerce company in China founded by college students is actually in talks for a merger!

Moreover, the buyer was quite unexpected. When the rumor first surfaced, everyone assumed it would be either Alibaba or JD.com, and even Vancl was mentioned, since they are all e-commerce companies. JD.com, in particular, was rumored to be the real deal.

After all, there were news reports before that the owners of these two companies knew each other.

However, in the end, it was actually won by two completely unrelated companies joining forces: Wanda and Baidu!
It was only then that people in the market realized that Wanda, a company that deals in offline retail properties, had also been trying to transform into an online business in recent years due to the impact of e-commerce. Another trend is that they want to get involved in whatever is popular, and this trend will become even more exaggerated in the next few years. For example, they want to get involved in O2O, food delivery, artificial intelligence, autonomous driving... basically, they want to dabble in everything.

When the final acquisition price was announced, no one thought that Lumang had sold for less than Vancl.

Although Lumang's operations are much healthier, with less debt and inventory, Vancl already has hidden worries beneath its success.

Many people were still shocked by Lumang's $6.6 million acquisition price, because that meant that Lu Changge, who held 56.25% of Lumang's shares, received no less than $3.7 million, or nearly 25 billion RMB!

Although part of the money is settled in the form of stocks, meaning Lu Changge won't actually receive that much cash all at once, stocks can still be converted into cash.

As for his five classmates who started the business with him, although they went through two rounds of financing and their shareholdings were reduced to less than 2%, it was still about 9 million RMB.

Are you kidding me? Who the hell goes to college and graduates with that much money?!

However, while outsiders discussed the matter, Lu Changge, after completing the graduation procedures from school and moving all her belongings to the house by the canal, began to prepare for her trip to the United States.

He had already received word that Tesla planned to list on NASDAQ in the United States around June 2010, and the roadshow had essentially begun. A roadshow is essentially a sales event, except this time the product being promoted is publicly traded stock.

Lu Changge came for this very reason. He had already contacted that madman and stated frankly that he had come to America with money. He also carried some of Xu Weiguo's hopes with him, namely, to persuade the guy to open a factory in Jiangzhou.

Considering the future market development trend, if we can start laying out the relevant industrial chain in 2010, it is expected that a booming industry will emerge here ten years later.

In this way, Lu Changge can not only make a profit, but his influence beyond money will also be considerable.

Of course, talking about those things is too far off. For now, Lu Changge only wants to do his best with what's in front of him, which is to use the money he's made to create the most exciting business, and this future trillion-dollar company is just one of them.

(End of this chapter)