Reborn: Billionaire in College

"Mr. He, we have two days left to pay the interest on two US dollar bonds. As of now, the money has not been paid. If we cannot pay it back, it will officially trigger a default on our overseas financing."

He Zhiyu waved his hand, with an unremovable sadness between his brows.

"Got it. The company is trying to find a solution. You go ahead and do your work. I'll let you know when there's news."

After the CFO left, He Zhiyu slowly took out a cigarette and lit it for himself. The spicy taste lingered in his chest as the smoke flickered.

If you don’t do business, you don’t know the pressure involved.

Outsiders think that being these rich people is glorious, but in fact only they themselves know the sadness and pressure involved.

When the company is doing well, we should worry about future development opportunities and think long-term.

When things are not going well, even drinking cold water will cause pain in your teeth, and every day when you wake up you face new pressure.

It feels like my body is not my own. I have to run around every day and dare not rest.

In the early years, He Zhiyu followed Chen Pingjiang's advice and operated commercial real estate and Yuanfang Supermarket, and his career was indeed thriving. Yuanfang Group was also successfully listed on the Hong Kong stock market, and for a time, He Zhiyu was the most popular person.

During that period, he also purchased a lot of real estate in various places and bought a lot of Bitcoin.

He Zhiyu first became obsessed with going to Macau, and lost as much as 300 or 400 million at one time, and there were countless other small accounts of several million.

At that time, He Zhiyu didn't think it was a big deal. After all, it was just a small amount of money for him. He still bought luxury cars and mansions, and even arranged for luxury yachts and private jets.

His wife laughed and said that he was getting too arrogant and ostentatious.

He Zhiyu, however, thought it was a small matter. If he didn't enjoy his money now that he was rich, would he continue to be an ascetic?

Moreover, according to the development trend of Yuanfang Group, these expenditures are nothing at all.

Living in a world of desire, He Zhiyu has less contact with his friends, let alone Chen Pingjiang. The two haven't seen each other for more than two years. On the one hand, they are all busy and it is difficult to coordinate time; on the other hand, He Zhiyu is embarrassed to always look for Chen Pingjiang, always feeling that Chen Pingjiang is now rich and they are from two different worlds.

Of course, these are all personal factors.

The main reason is the current predicament faced by Yuanfang Group.

In the years when commercial real estate was booming, He Zhiyu ignored Chen Pingjiang's advice and emphasized high turnover and large-scale development in order to seek a listing. Of course, he also wanted to compete with Wanda for territory.

Not to mention first- and second-tier cities, third- and fourth-tier cities have limited populations and relatively fixed business districts. If you don’t enter early, once good locations are occupied by competitors, it means that Yuanfang Real Estate will never be able to enter again.

In terms of the external environment, the country's multi-level regulation of the real estate industry also makes Yuanfang feel more pressured.

But the most fatal thing is that traditional commercial real estate has been strongly impacted by e-commerce, and the growth rate of physical retail sales has dropped significantly. Last year, the year-on-year sales growth rates of department stores, supermarkets and specialty stores dropped to 4%, 5.4% and 3.5% respectively, far lower than the levels in 2010.

This is a storm sweeping the industry, and no one can be immune to it.

Wanda Department Store adjusted and reduced its stores nationwide, and the net profits of large supermarket chains such as Wumart and Sun Art Retail fell by more than 10%. Golden Eagle Commerce closed two stores in Heshi and Changshi, and Intime could no longer afford to turn to Alibaba.

Then various problems followed.

Affected by the impact of e-commerce and intensified market competition, many projects have chosen to postpone their opening, and the commercial real estate market is facing great pressure to destock, especially in third- and fourth-tier cities. Real estate companies have accelerated destocking through price cuts, promotions, asset securitization, etc., but the results have been mediocre.

At the beginning of the year, Wanda launched its fourth transformation, announcing that it would shift from a real estate-based enterprise to a service-based enterprise, and launched a "light asset" strategy. In the future, the funds for the construction of Wanda Plaza will be funded by third parties, and Wanda will be responsible for operation and management. Real estate companies such as Vanke and Poly have increased their investment in community commerce and launched small but exquisite community shopping centers to reduce investment and operation risks.

Under such circumstances, it is hard to say that Yuanfang Real Estate is doing well.

The phone rang at this time, bringing He Zhiyu back to his senses.

Wan Qiping's voice came from the other side: "I can only find a way to get 100 million at most. If it doesn't work, I'll ask my friends in the Chamber of Commerce for help. It's just a matter of crossing the bridge."

He Zhiyu said coldly: "Those people in the Chamber of Commerce can only come up with 100 million or 200 million. If it's more, they will be worried. It's okay, Lao Wan, I appreciate your kindness, I will think of a solution on my own."

"Where can you find a solution? That's 20 billion, and you're still the majority shareholder. If all else fails, go find Chen Pingjiang. He must have money, and he might be willing to help you."

"Let me wait and see. It's been so long since we last contacted each other. I can't open my mouth."

"It's already this late, why are you still bothering with that? I'd say you've been drifting away in recent years, not even actively trying to get close to the God of Wealth. If you can't open your mouth, I'll ask you a question."

…………

After Chen Pingjiang hung up the phone, an expression of emotion appeared on his face.

Some people just drift apart as they go along. He Zhiyu is not the first, and he will not be the last.

Chen Pingjiang doesn't care what the other person thinks.

Although he also noticed the crisis of Yuanfang Supermarket, he did not take it seriously. Who knew that He Zhiyu would come to him now.

The call was from He Zhiyu, not Wan Qiping. The other party did not mention money, but just wanted to meet.

He is a man who believes in repaying kindness with kindness and repaying grievances with grievances.

No matter what, He Zhiyu helped me a lot in the early stages of my business, so I have to lend him a hand even if it is just out of gratitude.

only……

Just the next day on the phone.

Renrengou Group issued an announcement that several of its small shareholders will transfer a total of 5% of their shares to major shareholder Chen Pingjiang in the primary and secondary markets.

This move once again demonstrates the major shareholder's firm attitude towards holding Renrengou Group's shares, and also shows optimism about Renrengou's future performance.

At the close of the day, Renrengou's stock rose slightly by 1.6%.

Chen Pingjiang didn't lend money directly or invest in Yuanfang Real Estate. First, the two of them were less in touch and their feelings were weaker. Second, he had always said that he would not get involved in commercial real estate. Besides, if he got involved in commercial real estate now, he would only lose money, not make money.

Instead of doing that, it would be better to take back the 10% equity held by the 5 people in the Chamber of Commerce.

Chen Pingjiang did not treat them unfairly.

At the beginning, each of them invested 5000 million RMB, accounting for 0.5% of the shares. Now the market value of Renrengou exceeds 3000 billion Hong Kong dollars, and 0.5% of the shares are worth 15 billion Hong Kong dollars, which is at least 13 billion Hong Kong dollars after the exchange rate conversion.

Making a fortune is yes.

After receiving the money, He Zhiyu was able to alleviate his urgent needs. Chen Pingjiang kicked out the small shareholders of Renrengou, further strengthening his control over Renrengou.

Of course, there are also small shareholders who do not want to sell, as they feel that the value of their shares will continue to appreciate if they keep them.

But this was no longer a question of whether they wanted to or not. After Chen Pingjiang made his attitude clear, no one could refuse.

All their products are distributed through the Renrengou platform, so they can offend anyone but Chen Pingjiang.

Looking at the money that had just arrived in his bank account, He Zhiyu knew that his relationship with Chen Pingjiang had come to an end.

"If you want to blame someone, blame yourself." He Zhiyu sighed. During that time, everyone was so proud!

Maybe this is retribution.

He didn't dare to complain about Chen Pingjiang. After all, if it weren't for Chen Pingjiang, he might still be a small boss running a supermarket today. It was Chen Pingjiang who brought him to the top of the mountain, but his own thinking slipped.

…………

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, spring goes and summer comes.

Musical.ly has also completed its integration with Douyin, and the new app has been renamed TikTok in terms of both data and community.

This time, TikTok will be deployed and released globally.

It is far from comparable to Musical.ly.

This is certainly something worth being happy about, but at this moment Lu Yu couldn't laugh at all and even wanted to cry.

Just yesterday, TikTok topped the US IOS App Store charts without any marketing.

This is an achievement that Musical.ly could never have dreamed of.

As previously planned, the TikTok logo was only slightly adjusted so that users can keep the logo intact when sharing it to other platforms.

There was positive feedback on the first day after the adjustment, and the app store download ranking increased significantly. In the following half month, it continued to rise every day.

Until yesterday I climbed to the first place.

Although he had anticipated this situation, Lu Yu still hoped that day would come slowly so that he would not lose so completely.

This is good for TikTok, but not good for Lu Yu.

In any case, the discovery and adjustment of this matter had nothing to do with him, and he even became a negative example.

Perhaps it won't be long before my position will be adjusted.

Lu Yu thought.

Things can be big or small.

But as a professional manager, he does have an unshirkable responsibility for failing to keep abreast of the latest developments in such a basic area.

This shows that he is not suitable to lead a team, at least not suitable to lead TikTok and promote TikTok.

During this period, Lu Yu and Zhu Jun were both in great pain.

I want TikTok’s data to be good, but I don’t like to prove my incompetence.

"Okay, I know you have a lot of baggage in your mind, but no matter how heavy it is, what can you do? Things have already happened, Musical.ly is gone, and let the past be the past. What we have to do is to seize the present, work hard to do our job, and bring TikTok out." On the day of the phone call, Zhu Jun drove across time zones to comfort Lu Yu.

Compared with the perfectionist Lu Yu, Zhu Jun appears to be much more optimistic and cheerful.

Sometimes astrology is useful. Lu Yu is a typical Virgo, while Zhu Jun is a typical Leo.

"How is the situation over there now?" Lu Yu shook his head, put aside the chaotic thoughts in his mind, and asked.

On the other end of the phone, Zhu Jun was having dinner and said in an unclear voice: "We are just in the start-up stage and the personnel structure has just been finalized. In my opinion, whether the European region can achieve results depends on your performance in North America. After all, the United States is the world's weathervane. If an app is popular in the US market, it will soon spread to other regions and the media will compete to report on it. By then, we in Europe will win without any effort."

"But if TikTok doesn't take off in North America, then it will be difficult for me." Zhu Jun said with a smile: "Europe is not large in area, but there are so many countries and so many languages. It is very troublesome to promote it. I have to deal with the governments of various countries."

Lu Yu nodded, agreeing with what Zhu Jun said.

There are only a few countries that can produce world-class applications.

Because the basic requirements for the emergence of this kind of application are a large user population, sufficient data feedback, sufficient content and strong cultural output.

During this period of time in 2015, the United States was indeed one of the best.

If an app can be recognized in the US market, it will most likely be able to easily land on the IOS charts in other countries.

This can be proved by an example.

Years later, TikTok was banned in North America.

In an instant, American users shifted the battlefield and landed on Xiaohongshu, making the topic of tiktok regugee popular.

But the real feedback is that Xiaohongshu not only topped the list in North America IOS, but also climbed to the top of the list in the remaining 80 countries. It ranked in the top two or three in other remaining countries and regions.

What’s even funnier is that the people of the world are united and the people of China and the United States have started to reconcile their accounts.

It is also a wonderful sight.

On the other end of the phone, Zhu Jun asked, "How will the follow-up be operated? Do you have any idea?"

"Of course, Mr. Zhang will take time out in the next few days to have a video conference with me. We are deploying stage by stage, feeling our way forward. Once we have summarized the successful experience, we can pass it on to other continents for use." Lu Yu nodded.

TikTok’s rise to the top is not the end, but the beginning.

The pressure on Lu Yu is extremely great. Now the entire group is watching him and his every move.

Fortunately, after several meetings, Lu Yu also got some true knowledge. It is said that this was guided by the big boss at the top.

After seeing these specific operational plans, Lu Yu became even more fascinated with Chen Pingjiang, whom he usually saw in newspapers and on TV.

Some of these operation plans may seem simple, but it is not easy to summarize them, especially when the details are so comprehensive.

"TikTok's operations in the United States focus on localization. We will introduce American pop music, dance and cultural elements to attract local users to create and share content. At the same time, we will quickly expand the user base through social media advertising, cooperation with influencers and viral spread. Finally, we will build a creator community, provide traffic support and monetization opportunities, and encourage users to continue creating."

"Stop, stop, stop. Don't tell me the details. In short, be careful and don't put too much pressure on yourself. Of course, be prepared. I estimate that it won't be long before someone from above you parachutes in." Zhu Jun paused and continued, "After all, you are not a local American, and you don't have any connections in the American business community."

Lu Yuze acted indifferent: "I wish someone could share the pressure with me."

"Oh, I don't even know you, but you're just being stubborn."

……

After hanging up the phone, Lu Yu was actually not relieved.

As a professional manager, who doesn’t want to climb to the top of the mountain?

But this opportunity is destined not to be given to him.

"No matter what, I just need to have a clear conscience. And I also want to prove my ability. It was just a small mistake. TikTok will definitely be successful in my hands." Lu Yu thought. (End of this chapter)