I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 818-817 Our Journey is to the Stars and the Sea
"So focused on watching? Are you watching pretty girls dance on TikTok?" Bai Ou teased, seeing her husband staring intently at the screen.

"Am I that vulgar, your husband?" Fang Qingye glanced at her and handed her the phone.

"It's nothing really, it's nice to look at occasionally," Bai Ou said, but still took the phone.

"The 'Measures for the Application, Coordination, Registration and Maintenance Management of Satellite Networks (Trial)'?" She quickly skimmed through the contents and found that it mainly standardized the international application, domestic coordination, registration and maintenance of my country's satellite networks, while also pointing out the path for private enterprises to apply for satellite frequencies and orbital resources.

She was somewhat surprised: "Why are you suddenly interested in this?"

Fang Qingye didn't answer immediately, but leaned back in her recliner and looked up at the azure sky. Just then, a flock of pigeons flew by, like a handful of flowing pearls, suddenly scattering across the sky.

He suddenly began to recite in a low voice:
The starlight in the sky beckons me, but reaching the stars is so difficult.

Even the closest one, I really don't know if I have enough power.

I will wait patiently, and I will prepare myself for the journey that leads to my dreams and hopes.

Don't burn yourself out, my star, please wait for me.

Bai Ou was stunned: "You wrote this? When did you become a literary youth?"

Fang Qingye chuckled and explained, "I didn't write it. It's from the preface of Jin Hezai's online novel, 'My Journey is to the Stars and the Sea.'"

Before Bai Ou could ask anything else, she heard her grandmother calling from the yard, "Xiao Ye, Xiao Ou... bring Yangyang for dinner!"

"Okay, coming right away!" Bai Ou quickly replied, then called out to Fang Fei, who was taking aerial photos with a drone, "Fang Fei, dinner's ready!"

For dinner, Grandpa and Grandma usually make corn porridge and sesame flatbread, served with stir-fried dried tofu and scrambled eggs with chives—simple yet delicious. However, today they ate black rice porridge instead of corn porridge.

Bai Ou did this on a whim. When Fang Qingye was doing a live-streaming sales event in Yangzhou, she joined in the fun and placed an order for a five-kilogram bag of black rice—of course, she had to support her husband's work.

She cooked porridge when she got back; it was soft, sticky, and chewy, and her son especially loved this dark-colored stuff. After researching, she found it was also very nutritious, so she bought a few more bags online and distributed them to both sets of parents and grandparents. She even sent a bag to Xiahe, who lives in Singapore, so she could cook it for Qingqing.

I visited Fang Qingye's grandparents at the nursery at noon today and brought them a bag of black rice. The old folks immediately cooked a big pot of it.

After dinner, Fang Qingye's family and the nanny returned to their home in Lakeside Villa. In the living room, Fang Qingye remained seated on the sofa, intently reading the news article.

Seeing her husband like this, Bai Ou suddenly remembered something: "Ye Zi, I remember in July two years ago, you proposed the 'Great Tit' project to solve the risk control problem of microloans. At that time, you mentioned satellite remote sensing, and later you talked about Musk's Starlink—you don't want to develop Starlink too, do you?"

"Heh, Bai Ou, you have a good memory... Do you think it's feasible? Our current assets are much more substantial, hehe."

Bai Ou naturally understood what Fang Qingye meant by "solid assets"—the assets of Tuofang Technology and its holding companies, especially its cash reserves. As of the end of last year, the two major investment companies, "Tomorrow Cube" and "Tuofang Fund," each owned assets of RMB 33 billion and HKD 62 billion respectively, with available cash flow exceeding RMB 10 billion.

Tuofang Technology itself has 360 billion yuan in funds, half of which is used to purchase conservative investments such as treasury bonds, interest rate bonds, and high-grade credit bonds, while the other half is deposited in cash in various banks, which can be accessed by the supplier Qingye at any time.

These funds mainly come from the profits and investment income turned over by the two fund companies. As for the profits contributed by companies such as Jinghai Bank, Huacheng Development, and Zhiyun Technology, they are relatively small.

Companies like Ele.me, ByteDance, and DJI are still in their growth stage and have not yet been involved in dividend distribution.

In other words, Tuofang Technology's cash flow still mainly relies on securities market returns.

Bai Ou pondered for a moment and said, "I've read the '13th Five-Year Plan for the Development of National Strategic Emerging Industries' recently issued by the state. It clearly states that we should expand and strengthen the satellite and application industry, promote breakthroughs in high-end equipment and new materials industries, and lead a new leap forward in Chinese manufacturing. It also mentions building a remote sensing satellite system composed of constellations and thematic satellites, strengthening the construction of ground systems, and creating a 'Big Data Earth.' This shows that your idea is in line with the national policy direction."

Fang Qingye nodded and smiled, "That's why we should take advantage of this favorable wind."

“But if you really want to build China’s Starlink, you’re facing two problems.” Bai Ou frowned slightly. “First, funding. I’ve seen some public information. Musk has publicly stated that building the Starlink network is expected to require an investment of $200 billion to $300 billion! Such a huge amount of funding would be a massive expense for Tuofang as well. More crucially, there’s the technology and talent!”

“Research and development, manufacturing... Compared to Musk, it’s not just about developing Starlink and launching tens of thousands of satellites, but more importantly, the launch vehicle—SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is already commercially available and reusable, while my country currently does not have similar rocket technology.”

“Ye Zi, most of your past investments have been in finance and internet companies. The only company you’ve really been involved in manufacturing is DJI, and we’ve only made financial investments and haven’t been involved in actual operations… It’s too difficult to start from scratch now.”

“Indeed…” Fang Qingye scratched his head. “Initially, I only wanted to develop satellites. I would borrow the country’s launch vehicle first, and then consider developing it independently later. But even so, it is still quite difficult.”

He sighed softly as he said this.

Some things require a lot of money.

However, there are some things that even a lot of money can't solve!

"We should acquire a startup company that develops microsatellites! That way we'll have the technology and talent. Just like we acquired Zhiyun Technology back then!" Bai Ou suggested to Fang Qingye.

“Your idea is good, but companies like that are hard to find… There are tons of internet and fintech companies, but very few truly hardcore private enterprises engaged in aerospace research and development,” Fang Qingye said.

“I’ll keep an eye out for you, whether it’s in listed companies or startup parks!” Bai Ou said enthusiastically.

She must support her husband's ideas...

What's more, the line "Our journey is to the stars and the sea" is just so inspiring!
The couple chatted for a while, then stopped talking about it, as this matter couldn't be rushed.

To Fang Qingye's surprise, the opportunity actually came—a major shareholder of a company was transferring shares, and that company happened to be the one that developed microsatellites!
(End of this chapter)