How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 112 Wealth is Compensation for Cognition [10,000-word Update, Please Subscribe]

Wang Yao has been pushing so many trending topics lately, and finally, by using Li Chaoren, he has created a new internet buzzword: 'phoenix man'.

By leveraging the keywords "phoenix man" and combining them with Baidu's paid search ranking, a large amount of general traffic was brought to the women's clothing store. Most of those searching for these three words are women, resulting in a very high conversion rate for the online store. Three stores have already achieved sales exceeding 500,000 yuan for two consecutive days.

After the New Year, with sufficient funds, Wang Yao directly contacted Taobao staff and signed a contract for a 1000 million yuan annual top-up, with a 15% rebate.

Currently, Taobao's direct traffic service offers a 15% rebate for a 10 million yuan recharge. If you recharge 100 million yuan in two years, the rebate will be only 5%.

Moreover, this rebate is not in cash, but converted into the amount of money recharged. In the future, traffic will be inflated, so it seems like you are getting a rebate, but in reality you are losing money.

For such high-spending customers, Taobao specially assigned a dedicated Taobao staff member to handle the matter. Wang Yao asked Ni Ni to build a good relationship with the staff member, because the staff member would definitely have many partner merchants, who would be the target customers for the agency operation business.

The online ticketing dispute is nearing its end; now we'll see if any new conflicts or surprises emerge.

Looking at the surge in Hejiang Group's stock price and the soaring turnover rate, Wang Yao had a premonition that a pleasant surprise might be just around the corner.

I received a call from Deng Wendi right after I finished lunch.

"I sent a file to your email address, please take a look," Deng Wendi said succinctly.

After Wang Yao opened it, he found it was a compressed file containing materials about Li Chaoren, and quite sensitive ones at that.

"Sister Di, I dare not handle these kinds of messages," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Of course you can't handle this. Can you help me see what topics are easy to use? Li Chaoren has been cashing out recently and seems to want to invest in England. We can take advantage of this wave of popularity in China to create some obstacles for him," Deng Wendi said cryptically.

But it is clear that someone wants to take this opportunity to attack the Li family.

“These few can be turned into news articles about pork knuckles, and these few can be turned into opinion pieces. This old guy has quite a lot of material,” Wang Yao said with a smile as he selected the articles.

"A big businessman, huh?" Deng Wendi smiled, without saying anything more.

After Wang Yao finished sorting the items, he hung up the phone. The smile on his face instantly turned gloomy. After a moment of hesitation, he called Liu Haifeng.

"Brother Liu, I've received some information, I don't know if you need it." Wang Yao got straight to the point, asked for the other party's email address, and sent the information over.

"These are all speculations and signals, and they don't constitute any major negative news," Liu Haifeng quickly analyzed.

"Brother Liu, do you rely on technique or intuition when you play the stock market?" Wang Yao asked with a smile.

“Of course it’s safe,” Liu Haifeng said with a smile.

"Is there such a thing as a 'newcomer benefits period' in your industry?" Wang Yao smiled.

"Well, theoretically it's definitely not possible, but statistically speaking, the less you know about the stock market, the easier it is to profit. However, the more you know, the greater the probability of being taken advantage of," Liu Haifeng said with a smile.

"My intuition tells me that the river might be about to fall," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Judging from recent trends, the probability of a drop is not high." Liu Haifeng smiled. "But if you want to verify it, I can help you with the operation."

He could tell that Wang Yao seemed quite fixated on being bearish on Hebei. As a private equity manager, he wouldn't stop any of his clients' ideas; at most, he would offer suggestions, since he earned his money through commissions anyway.

"How much higher do you think it can go?" Wang Yao asked.

"Looking at today's market, I estimate that Hejiang will rise by about 0.8% by the close. The index has been rising recently, so the probability of it falling as a leading stock is not high," Liu Haifeng said seriously.

“Then I’ll trouble you, Brother Liu. With 20 million and a leverage of over 100 times, I’m bearish in the short term,” Wang Yao said.

"100x leverage? That means a rise of more than 0.4% will trigger a margin call, and a 0.5% forced liquidation means your position might not last until the market closes." Liu Haifeng was stunned, not expecting this kid to be such a gambler.

Didn't you say it was 10x leverage before?

Could it be that there is some inside information?
A 100-fold increase of 20 million would be a position of nearly 2 billion, which would definitely cause a stir even if Hebei's market value was in the trillions.

Moreover, such a large position in a short period of time will inevitably trigger a bullish sentiment, and it is even possible that the position will be liquidated instantly before even half of the transaction is completed.

A gambling addict?
"I suggest you start by using 10x leverage to build a position and see how it goes," Liu Haifeng suggested tactfully.

"It's alright, I've set aside money for replenishing the stock." Wang Yao said calmly.

"The position is too large; we might not be able to finish building it today." Liu Haifeng hesitated for a moment, then decided to help him stabilize the situation.

After the two finalized the details of the collaboration, Wang Yao began contacting banks to transfer funds.

But while Liu Haifeng was having someone operate the machine, he suddenly had a sudden whim.

Even if Wang Yao is a rich second-generation, it's not like he would pay 20 million for tuition right away, is it?
Moreover, he seemed to have a strange sense of confidence, which even influenced him somewhat.

How about we set aside some money and play along?

Liu Haifeng was caught in a dilemma.

In fact, Wang Yao didn't have any specific strategy. He just made his judgment based on the recent public opinion trends and the feedback from Deng Wendi that Li Chaoren was quietly cashing out.

Hejiang is likely to fall because the European debt crisis is not over yet, and most importantly, Wang Yao tested Deng Wendi at the time to see if the negative news about the Li family on the international version of Myspace needed to be controlled.

Deng Wendi not only said that there was no need to control it, but also sent him new materials today.

Regardless of their motives, this proves that the Li family was indeed cashing out.

Although the river is rising, public opinion is falling. Moreover, starting today, the discussion about the Li family has gone beyond the topics I initially raised. It is clear that a third party or multiple forces have intervened.

This contradictory phenomenon made Wang Yao feel the existence of 'momentum', and he only needed to go with the flow.

Wealth is compensation for cognitive deficiencies.

Wang Yao planned to use this money to test it out.

As for why they used a leverage ratio of 100 times, it was mainly to provoke Liu Haifeng. If he was tempted and joined in, it might trigger a subtle chain reaction.

Beliefs are important.

Although the law of attraction is somewhat mysterious.

However, the belief that one's mind cannot be swayed by any thoughts and one's will cannot be broken by any unwavering resolve will indeed have a certain impact on those around them.

But the uncertainty made him feel a bit anxious, so he decided to do something else to distract himself.

Shortly after, a new post appeared on the movie-watching website.

[Jiahe's Defeat]

The post is an analysis that examines the rise and fall of Jiahe Entertainment, one of the most famous entertainment companies in Hong Kong. It points out that Chengtian Entertainment's strategy of acquiring Jiahe and then listing it through a backdoor listing, and that its attempt to block the box office of "A Simple Noodle Story" by joining forces with "Storm Riders 2" and "The Treasure Hunter" last year was a decisive failure for Chengtian Entertainment.

The reason why Chengtian Entertainment did not continue to invest in or produce films this year, but instead wanted to rely on external Hollywood films, is because they no longer have the ability to produce and distribute them.

"A Simple Noodle Story" was already considered bad; the two films, "The Treasure Hunter" and "Storm Riders 2," couldn't even beat one of them. They can only be called the king of bad films.

After all, Wang Jing's two films before the Lunar New Year were able to go toe-to-toe with the box office dark horse "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf".

This also proves that this company can no longer be considered a film and television company; it can almost only be considered a theater chain company, since it has no artists, does not invest in projects, and has not made any achievements as a distributor.

Then he wrote "Ten Deadly Sins of Decline," analyzing everything from Wu Kebo forcing Wang Jinhua away and failing to retain Xu Li, to his ambiguous relationships with female artists under his management and treating the company like a harem.

Without a doubt, this is a post specifically targeting Chengtian Entertainment.

Moviegoers were deeply moved after watching it.

It turns out that "The Treasure Hunter" was also involved in the production of "The Treasure Hunter"?

However, the post then began to reveal that the entertainment company controlled by the major shareholder had facilitated the money laundering of projects, and even uncovered the background of the Japanese investors behind Wu Kebo.

Chengtian Entertainment, which had just been suppressed by the Li family, is once again in the spotlight.

Meanwhile, Wu Kebo, the person involved, was having a secret meeting with Xu Chen, the CEO of Meishe Company.

In the battle of public opinion, Wu Kebo cannot be said to have suffered a complete defeat; rather, his performance was severely hampered by numerous flaws. However, he also knew that his counterattack would be futile.

After all, he didn't even fully understand who his opponent was.

By the time he figured it out, Wang Yao had almost beaten him to death with a flurry of punches.

But he was a smart man and knew that public opinion warfare was not his forte; capital operation was his specialty. So he turned around and asked someone to contact Meishe Company.

Isn't Wang Yao the head of a subsidiary of Meishe Company? I'm not going to fight you; I'll go straight to your superior.

Xu Chen was also completely bewildered. Recently, seeing Wang Yao wielding such influence in the industry, he had been trying to minimize his presence and avoid attracting attention. But unexpectedly, he was still approached by two major figures in quick succession; Bernard had barely left when Cheng Tian arrived.

He knew that these people weren't there for Meishe at all; their real target was Tianhuo.com.

But that didn't stop him from raising the price.

"Mr. Wu, Bernard just gave us a valuation of 8 million and wants to acquire 25% of our shares for 2 million in cash. What price are you going to offer now?" Xu Chen asked with a smile.

Wu Kebo was unaware that he had been thrust into the spotlight again. He calmly said, "President Xu, no matter how high the valuation Berna offers, it's only for acquiring 25%, while I'm going to do a complete acquisition. I hope Meishe will join the Chengtian family."

"Merger and acquisition?" Xu Chen was taken aback, not expecting the other party to have such a big appetite. "President Wu may have some misunderstanding. Actually, Meishe is not short of money."

“But Meishe lacks resources. I promise that after the acquisition, President Xu will still enjoy all the power. I will not interfere with your development. At the same time, I can also provide your artists through Chengtian’s resource network.” Wu Kebo waved his hand.

He's seen through it all now; playing the celebrity game is too risky, so he'll stick to modeling instead.

"Well, to be frank, does Cheng Tian have any film and television resources left?" Xu Chen asked with a smile.

“We are in talks to acquire Legendary Entertainment, which is a Hollywood resource.” Wu Kebo frowned, somewhat displeased.

"Mr. Wu, I haven't fully grasped the resources in China yet," Xu Chen said with a smile, waving his hand.

“If we don’t accept the merger, we can also have cross-shareholding,” Wu Kebo proposed another option.

"Hmm?" Xu Chen's mind raced.

Meishe currently claims a valuation of 10 billion, but in reality, it would be quite good if it were 5 million, thanks to the influence of Tianhuo Network Media. However, with the rapid development of the internet, if Meishe's online photo-selling model becomes popular in the future, its valuation could be extraordinary.

However, Chengtian Entertainment does have real cinema assets, and their fixed assets can be sold for real money at any time, unlike entertainment companies which are asset-light and easily forgotten once the person leaves.

If cross-shareholding with Chengtian Entertainment can be achieved, then at least there will be a stable guarantee.

"How does Mr. Wu plan to cross over?" Xu Chen asked, intrigued.

“10% of the daily revenue will be exchanged for 50% of the beauty photography revenue,” Wu Kebo said seriously.

"Is Mr. Wu kidding me?" Xu Chen's face turned cold.

With a market value of only 20 billion, if you exchange 10% for 50% of Meishe, wouldn't that only get you a valuation of 4 million? That's not even as good as Bernardo.

After some haggling, the two sides finally negotiated a 10% to 35% exchange rate. Xu Chen said he would report back to the board of directors.

"Regarding this Tianhuo online media, could Mr. Xu help me clear up some doubts?" Wu Kebo changed the subject.

Xu Chen narrowed his eyes and nodded.

When Wu Kebo left Meishe Company, his face was somewhat grim, because he was reluctant to believe that his opponent was really a college student who had not yet graduated.

When Yangzi told him about it, he thought Wang Yao was just a puppet pushed to the forefront, and that Meishe might be controlling him behind the scenes. But now it seems like he's encountered a ghost.
Are all college students these days so insidious?
What are schools teaching?

"Mr. Wu, something's happened." As soon as they left the company, the secretary waiting in the car rushed forward to report.

Upon hearing this, Wu Kebo's face grew even uglier. "This is outrageous! Do they really think I'm made of clay?!"

Just as he was about to unleash his fury, he suddenly received an important call. Upon seeing the caller ID, Wu Kebo instinctively sat up straight and respectfully picked up the phone. "Mr. Li, what brings you to call me?"

"Xiao Wu, put the online ticketing website matter aside for now. There's a tricky issue that I need your help with." Li Chaoren's voice was somewhat somber.

"What can I do for you?" Wu Kebo's heart tightened.

Wang Yao didn't expect that the first official statement released by Chengtian Entertainment wouldn't be directed at Kanpianer.com, but rather at the news that they were suing Wang Jinhua and her artists for alleged business and tax issues during their collaboration.

I was stunned for a moment.

What kind of move is this that kills a thousand enemies but also harms eight hundred of your own?

Even if Wang Jinhua has problems, does that mean Wu Kebo can get away with it?
But he quickly realized that this counterattack might not have been Wu Kebo's idea, but rather that someone needed a sufficiently bombshell piece of news to divert attention.

If it's just a debt dispute, it would be enough to name only Wang Jinhua; there's no need to drag in a whole host of popular celebrities like Chen Daoming, Hu Jun, Xia Yu, and Tong Dawei.

Because of this collateral damage, Chengtian Entertainment will really have no way to survive in the industry anymore, since these artists are backed by multiple investors who invest tens of millions every year.

So they must have been driven to desperation to resort to this tactic.

So who exactly is pressuring him?
It’s really hard to guess.

Wang Yao couldn't hide the smile on his face. He first called to comfort Wang Jinhua, and her calm voice indicated that there were contingency plans in place and there was no need to worry.

Looking at the stock price of Hejiang Group, with less than an hour left before the market closes, it has already retreated from a high of 0.8% to 0.3%.

I don't know how much of a position Liu Haifeng has, but it shouldn't be enough to cause a margin call.

But he wasn't in a hurry at all, because once the opponent was eliminated, it would prove that his previous judgments were correct.

Sure enough, after the market closed, many investment institutions on foreign websites suddenly released the latest updates on the European debt crisis. Several financial institutions pointed out that there would be a large amount of foreign capital transfer to Hong Kong stocks. Huaxia Bank even specifically named and analyzed that Lai Chiu Yan, the head of Hejiang Group, had recently been in contact with a large number of energy and communication companies in England, which seemed to indicate that he was planning something big.

Before Wang Yao could finish browsing the information, he received a call from Liu Haifeng.

"President Wang is truly a brilliant strategist." Liu Haifeng's tone was somewhat subtle. "It seems that the situation in Hejiang tomorrow might not be very optimistic."

"Brother Liu, do you have any good news?" Wang Yao asked with a smile.

Liu Haifeng owns one of the world's largest private equity firms, so he certainly has more information.

"The Li family wanted to quietly sell their assets in the two places and then invest in England after cashing out. It was going very smoothly until today when Huaqi Bank suddenly turned against them for some reason."

"The value of Hejiang's core assets will be thrown into panic because of this incident, and some people will try to take the opportunity to drive down prices or dump the shares," Liu Haifeng said in a deep voice.

"So, you're saying it depends on whether the Li family's base is stable enough?" Wang Yao narrowed his eyes.

"I won't let him leave easily." Liu Haifeng sneered. "Where is Mr. Wang's short position? I want to prepare in advance."

"3% then." Wang Yao glanced at the stock price, which was currently at 102.5.

“My suggestion is that we can be a little greedy, around 6% is fine.” Liu Haifeng suddenly became aggressive.

"Let's know when to stop while we're ahead," Wang Yao said with a smile.

This principle was taught to me by Li Chaoren.

“Mr. Wang is the most unique young man I’ve ever met. I hope we can have more opportunities to cooperate in the future,” Liu Haifeng said meaningfully.

He's starting to suspect Wang Yao has powerful connections, because the terrifying control he displays, from the hundredfold leverage in the morning to the decisive take-profit at night, is something a young man shouldn't possess.

More importantly, Wang Yao really made the right bet. Even Liu Haifeng himself wasn't very confident about the short position on Hejiang, since those opinions had little impact on the capital market. He firmly believed there must be a deeper connection.

Lai Chiu-yan, who overlooks Victoria Harbour, is also puzzled.

He couldn't understand why Hua Qi would suddenly turn against him, not only withholding a significant amount of his collateral but also exposing his actions.

When he started being nicknamed "Li Paopao" on the internet in both places because of the few disclosures made by Huaqi Bank, he felt that his enemies seemed to be different from before.

Overnight, the name Li Paopao became a household name. Li Chaoren went from being a legendary richest man envied by countless people to a seemingly arrogant man who forced his wife to commit suicide, and finally became Li Paopao, who made money off the hard-earned money of the Chinese people but was thinking about investing abroad.

Public opinion and sentiment are not entirely useless.

Two hours before the market opened the next day, a post titled "Who took all the money from Hong Kong people?" went viral on Myspace and spread rapidly throughout Hong Kong.

The post once again delved into the Lai family's vast and terrifying industrial chain, echoing the earlier post 'Hong Kong has its own three stars'.

Furthermore, the post also focused on the amusement of the two sons of the Li family selling Tencent stock and losing hundreds of billions, as well as the inside story of forcibly privatizing China Electronics Technology Group Corporation in order to monopolize the future of the 3G and 4G communication era.

Originally, the company's future size might have approached a market value of 100 billion yuan, but now it has nothing to do with the retail investors. The fruit that everyone has nurtured for eight or nine years has finally been harvested by the Li family.

Now the Li family feels that Hong Kong has no value anymore, and they are preparing to go to England to continue their exploitation.

This post not only caused a stir in Hong Kong, but also sparked heated discussions on foreign websites.

Thus, after the market opened, a fierce battle fueled by anger and fear officially began.

Li Chaoren, who had barely slept all night, paid no attention to the stock market fluctuations. Instead, he quietly gazed at the cloudless sky outside the window, his old but still sharp eyes like those of a lion king surveying his territory.

"Who will embody the spirit of the new era?"

(End of this chapter)