Chapter 940
Since We're Here
No one knows what the three of them talked about behind closed doors.
Even when they left, the two elderly people remained expressionless.
Even Old He sighed.
Turning to Mayor Fu Changjun beside him, he said, "Old Fu, let's not get involved in this. As the saying goes, anything not prohibited by law is permissible. Little Lu didn't break the law. Although it caused some social impact, it's still within the framework. We can't let anyone who loses money or feels they've been taken advantage of come to the parents to complain. If everyone did that, wouldn't that break the rules?"
Mayor Fu, standing nearby, looked furious.
It seems that if the person who said this wasn't his mentor, a friend of several decades, and someone who was no longer in office and had retired to a less important position, he would have turned against him long ago.
After a long pause, he finally managed to say, "Just keep indulging him. Sooner or later he'll cause another huge disaster. I'll see if your influence will still be as effective then."
That's all.
Ignoring the timid looks from those around him, he left without looking back.
This news quickly spread throughout Shenzhen.
It is said that Mayor Fu was too sentimental and was betrayed by his old friend.
What makes this old man, who has been retired for several years, whose official rank was not even as high as Mayor Fu's when he was in office, so daring to protect that guy surnamed Lu?
It's all because Mayor Fu attended a few classes under his tutelage back in the day.
Isn't this a classic case of taking advantage of one's age and seniority?
Of course, the truth doesn't matter. The truth is... whatever shape the mastermind behind the scenes wants to cut it into, that's the shape it will be.
Clearly, this time, the two old men's act wasn't exposed, at least on the surface. At the very least, the mouths of Mr. Liu from Pengcheng High-tech Investment and Mr. Shen from Shenzhen Investment were shut up.
If they still respected Mayor Fu, they wouldn't have continued to pester him at this critical juncture, especially since the mayor had clearly shown respect for his old friend by letting Lu Yang off the hook. They wouldn't have kept coming to the municipal government every day to bother him.
That night.
Lu Yang then called He Weijun, his voice full of gratitude.
"Teacher, I'm sorry to have troubled you this time. After this period is over, I will definitely visit you and your wife in person to express my gratitude."
He Weijun laughed and said, "What's there to feel wronged about? Everyone's saying that I, Old He, have more influence than the sky. Fu Changjun is the one who's really wronged. You should take it easy, kid. The reason he let the matter drop this time isn't entirely because he's giving me face. It's because you, the CEO of Century Group, really deserve his protection. What a joke! You're a major taxpayer in Pengcheng. If he doesn't protect you, who else will he protect? But this kind of thing can't happen twice. You'd better watch yourself."
Lu Yang quickly replied, "I understand your deep care and concern, teacher. Don't worry, if I ever do something like this again, I will make sure to clean up the mess."
He Weijun laughed and scolded, "You brat, you dare to do that? Fine, I can't control you anymore. You'd better not call me teacher anymore. I can't be your teacher."
Lu Yang grinned and said, "No, you will always be the teacher I, Lu Yang, respect the most."
Sigh, if only I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have done it in the first place.
After hanging up the phone, He Weijun sighed.
He shouldn't have accepted this student.
As Lu Xun once said: "Wipe someone's buttocks, once you've done it the first time, you'll do it countless times."
Mr. Lu Xun was not lying to me.
……
Lu Yang whistled and got out of the car in a very cheerful mood.
I looked up and glanced at the towering skyscraper that seemed to reach into the clouds.
Walk up the steps and enter the spacious gates of Century Group.
Good morning, Chairman.
"Hello, Chairman."
"Chairman, would you like some coffee? This is a coffee I just bought from across the street this morning."
"No need, thank you, you drink it."
Along the way, employees from Century Group kept greeting him.
Occasionally, pretty young ladies would try to feed him.
He waved her away, politely declining her offer.
At this moment, Lu Nini stepped forward and whispered, "Mr. Hun Sen of Goldman Sachs got off the plane last night and arrived at the company early this morning. He's already in the meeting room. Boss, you haven't had breakfast yet, have you? How about I bring your breakfast over too?"
Lu Yang waved his hand dismissively and said, "No need, let him wait. I'm going to have breakfast first. Please call President Wei over later, and we can discuss things while we eat. Let's keep our friend who has come from afar waiting."
Hun Sen, that fat bastard, really messed with Lu Yang back then.
As the head of Goldman Sachs Capital in Asia, this guy has a terrifying sense of smell that is directly proportional to his obesity. With his sharp eyes, he discovered the difference between "Little Prodigy" and many other emerging high-tech companies in Asia early on. He decisively invested $6 million, beat other foreign capital in the Series C funding round, and acquired 15% of Little Prodigy's equity.
In the subsequent IPO process of Little Prodigy in the United States, we actively served as one of its underwriters and shouldered the heavy responsibility of Little Prodigy's listing in the United States.
On the surface, Lu Yang should be grateful to Hun Sen.
However, in reality, besides the contributions mentioned above, there are countless other things this guy has done to Lu Yang.
The fat man had tried more than once to seize control of the prodigy from Lu Yang.
More than once, they tried to set traps for Lu Yang behind his back, but each time Lu Yang narrowly escaped them, ultimately not only avoiding falling into the trap but also making a fortune.
When Little Prodigy successfully went public, its stock price rose continuously in a short period of time, just when everyone was optimistic about it.
Lu Yang, however, approached some investment banks on Wall Street and proposed a somewhat unbelievable plan.
He planned to use all of his shares in the child prodigy company as collateral to raise funds, which he would then invest in the financial market to go long on Microsoft, whose stock price was not favored at the time.
At that time, Microsoft was in a slump.
Released in March of the same year, the Microsoft Bob was a complete failure due to its chaotic interface logic and high hardware requirements, and was regarded as one of the worst products in the history of technology.
Furthermore, the shadow of anti-monopoly looms large.
In this situation, a foreign kid, an Eastern kid from a mysterious country across the ocean, actually claimed that he would sell the entire company to support Bill Gates' Microsoft empire.
Many people think this is a joke.
However, Hun Sen, this fat man, "believed" it and, before other institutions and investment banks were still hesitating, agreed to Lu Yang's financing request and even devised a detailed loan repayment plan for Lu Yang!
Did he really believe it?
of course not.
He was betting on Lu Yang's failure.
According to this agreement, if Lu Yang loses...
What he will lose is his controlling stake in Little Divine Power.
Although not to the point of being kicked out.
But at the very least, he can forget about the chairman's position, and even whether he can keep his position on the company's board of directors depends on how many of the prodigy's shares he can ultimately retain.
But what if we win?
That's fine. Lu Yang will have to pay 10% annual interest to buy back the stocks he pledged to the bank.
So either way, Hun Sen won't suffer any losses.
What about Lu Yang? He didn't suffer any losses either.
He even made a fortune by buying Microsoft stock.
With that money, he built an eight-inch wafer fab in Singapore.
However, this is because he has eyes that can see into the future, because his soul comes from the future and knows the future direction, and knows that Microsoft's stock is unlikely to fall in the near future.
95 was a turning point for Microsoft. The birth of Windows 95 was like a nuclear bomb, which exploded in the PC personal computer market at the time, directly making Microsoft the uncrowned king of personal computer operating systems in the world.
In this market situation...
It was the countless retail and institutional investors who flocked from all over the world, waving their money to buy Microsoft stock. Buy it, buy it, and buy it again... The fervent sentiment brought about a consistent positive effect.
Who dares to jump out and disagree at this time?
Anyone who tries to short Microsoft is a fool. Even back then, some people had ill intentions and planned to gather a group of investment banks to deliberately drive down Microsoft's stock price with their capital, giving this mysterious young man from the East a bloody lesson. Unfortunately, in the end, the plan had to be abandoned and died in the womb.
“Mister Lu, it’s been a long time.”
In the reception room, Hun Sen was not angry because he had been waiting for Lu Yang for a long time. Instead, after Lu Yang finished breakfast, he calmly called Wei Shu over for a small morning meeting for two. Finally, he got up and left the office. When he came to the reception room to see Lu Yang, he stood up and wanted to give Lu Yang a warm hug.
But Lu Yang dodged it.
This fatso is still as enthusiastic as ever, but that just shows he's never going to say anything good.
The decision was made to strike first.
"stop."
"Old Sen, I'm telling you, you have black eyes and yellow skin, you're a true Chinese. Even though you've been living in the White Territory for two or three generations, we're still old friends. We used to work together quite well. Why are you suddenly acting as someone's advocate? You're not here to threaten me on behalf of someone, are you?"
Hun Sen's outstretched arms immediately froze in place.
His purpose in coming here is a secret.
How did they guess?
Could it be that the other party has its own people on Wall Street, or even inside the NYSE?
Lu Yang certainly didn't have any of his own people.
It's just that money can buy anything.
He chuckled again, "I was just joking, Old Sen. You wouldn't actually do it, would you? No way, no way. We're old friends. For the sake of our friendship, you wouldn't come after me, would you?"
This sarcastic remark made Hun Sen, a Chinese man deeply influenced by Chinese family culture, blush.
"Um, Mr. Lu, you misunderstand. I came here... just to catch up and, by the way... offer you a small suggestion."
As she spoke, she glanced at Lu Yang very cautiously.
Lu Yang laughed heartily and patted Hong Sen on the shoulder, "No rush, no rush, sit down, sit down. An old friend has come, let's chat about everyday things first. By the way, have you eaten yet?"
Hun Sen cursed under his breath.
What should I eat? Tea? My stomach is full of tea right now, it's gurgling and making a lot of noise, does that count?
He now understood that the young man from the East was deliberately mocking him.
But he couldn't get angry.
Because he did indeed bring a mission with him on this trip.
He has acted as a lobbyist for many globally renowned Wall Street firms, including Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Lehman Brothers.
These are some of the more prominent foreign shareholders of the listed company, Xiaoshentong Electronics.
Looking at the recent trend of the Little Divine Power candlestick chart.
This is a typical case of an organization standing on the mountaintop, and a group of organizations standing on the mountaintop at the same time.
The reason they wanted to use Hun Sen, who had relatively more dealings with Lu Yang, as an intermediary was clearly because they couldn't hold on any longer and wanted to leave in a more dignified way while minimizing their own losses.
As for Hun Sen's former employer, Goldman Sachs.
It was the lead investor in Xiaoshentong's Series C funding round, and also one of the underwriters for Xiaoshentong's NASDAQ listing in North America in 95. For the past four or five years, Goldman Sachs has been an important shareholder of Xiaoshentong.
But in the past year.
However, it has been secretly reducing its holdings all along.
His methods were similar to Lu Yang's, even more professional and secretive. Ultimately, Lu Yang was an outsider, while Chen Fan, though capable, didn't have a team of top Wall Street traders to help him manage his investments.
In addition, Goldman Sachs Capital initially held less than 15% of Little Prodigy's shares, which was incomparable to Lu Yang's status as a major shareholder. After nearly a year of gradual reductions, it has almost sold off all of its shares.
They made billions of dollars.
And it's safe to take the money and keep it.
Goldman Sachs did indeed have some skill in preventing these shares from becoming a windfall at the last minute, a windfall that vanished in an instant.
Hun Sen, that fat guy, has thus become a hot commodity at Goldman Sachs.
In contrast, many internationally renowned institutions and investment banks on Wall Street became the ones left holding the bag at the top.
Of course, they wouldn't vent their resentment on Goldman Sachs, which is also an institution, but instead blamed Lu Yang, the instigator.
Hun Sen's trip to the East.
It was also their move to bypass Hun Sen and contact senior executives at Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs sees this as an opportunity to state their position.
As beneficiaries.
They have no intention of making enemies of these globally renowned institutions and investment banks.
Then he was immediately forced to drink a lot of tea.
Hun Sen took a break to use the restroom, and only after returning did he finally find an opportunity.
He explained his purpose for coming.
"Mr. Lu, you should already know why I'm here. Your recent actions have been quite controversial. Many institutions on Wall Street that were previously listed at the top have already filed complaints and protests with the New York Stock Exchange."
If this appeal is approved, it is highly likely to have an adverse impact on you, Mr. Lu. In severe cases, the exchange may announce the freezing of all stock accounts under your name.
Therefore, Goldman Sachs Capital specifically stepped in to help you out of this predicament, and is willing to proactively contact you on behalf of us, hoping to find a mutually beneficial outcome.
After hearing this, Lu Yang said calmly, "Is this considered a threat? You, Hun Sen, standing on Chinese soil, want to threaten me?"
Hun Sen quickly shook his head, "No, no, no, it's not a threat, it's a request."
He's here to be a lobbyist, not to offend anyone. It doesn't make sense for him to get himself involved just to be a lobbyist.
"Pfft."
Lu Yang laughed, a wildly triumphant laugh. "Then tell me, what conditions did they offer? What reason do you have to stand before me and act as their advocate?"
Hun Sen suddenly hesitated.
He hesitated, unsure of what to say.
In fact, he knew without even thinking that the other party would never agree to those reasons!
But since we're already here, we might as well give it a try. (End of Chapter)