Chapter 1186: One Step Ahead

Pain is relative; when others are in more pain than you, your own pain can be greatly reduced. This is a strange sentiment, one that only humans can feel.

Conversely, when others are happier than you, we feel very uncomfortable. Zhao Fusheng was now very unhappy, because he discovered that those guys from Japan actually wanted to make a profit from American tech stocks, and he couldn't stop them.

Because this was bound to happen.

Seeing the materials Dong Chenxi sent him, Zhao Fusheng felt even more pained.

Damn Japanese! They had recently been heavily buying tech stocks and shares of tech companies in the United States. Did those guys really have that much faith in the American tech stock market?

"What, do you think the Japanese businessmen are gambling?" Fan Baobao, though not fully understanding the issue, asked with concern upon seeing Zhao Fusheng's bad expression.

Zhao Fusheng sighed and touched her arm. "It's not gambling; those guys have noses like hunting dogs. I have to say, their timing is impeccable."

Fan Baobao frowned slightly. Clearly, she only half-understood Zhao Fusheng's words.

Zhao Fusheng smiled and said nothing more.

Often, what things really look like and what the truth is depends on what our eyes see and our inherent experience and judgment. But in some cases, it depends on the matter itself or even the wishes of those involved.

Clearly, the big Japanese conglomerates had been very secretive this time. If Zhao Fusheng hadn't known the timing of the future subprime mortgage crisis and had always been wary of the development of American high-tech stocks, he might have been fooled by Ono Masao this time.

Thinking this, Zhao Fusheng had to admit that those Japanese were really formidable. He himself had made his current judgment about the US stock market based on foreknowledge, but the Japanese had judged that tech stocks in the US market would continue to grow. That took some guts, considering the internet bubble had burst not long ago.

Though reluctant to admit it, facts were facts. Zhao Fusheng had to say that he still had a long way to go compared to top businessmen.

In Zhao Fusheng's view, throughout five thousand years of history, at home and abroad, doing business ultimately boiled down to one word: deception. The better you were at deceiving others, the more successful you became; the bigger the lie you told, the more power you gained.

Of course, this was something he had read in books, a lesson he had summarized from continuous reading after his rebirth.

Books are like that: some people read heroic tragedy, some read tender romance, some gain great wisdom, and some uncover grand conspiracies.

Um, and some people can read between the lines and see the word 'cannibalism.'

Reading something is not the problem; the truly terrifying thing is that if people comprehend certain truths from books, they will put them into practice.

"I'm going to be busy," Zhao Fusheng said, patting Fan Baobao's hand with a sigh.

Fan Baobao was momentarily stunned, then smiled brightly. "You go ahead; I'll take care of Beibei."

Since Zhao Fusheng had serious work to do, she wouldn't hold him back; instead, she would be a good helpmate. This was a decision Fan Baobao had made long ago.

...

...

Nothing happened that night. Early the next morning, Zhao Fusheng appeared at the group headquarters with Zhang Qian.

"Why are you here?"

Zheng Yao was surprised to see Zhao Fusheng. She didn't know about the investigation he had asked Dong Chenxi to conduct and thought he had come to the company on other business.

Zhao Fusheng smiled. "You'll find out in a moment."

Soon, Dong Chenxi appeared in Zhao Fusheng's office. Zheng Yao was even more surprised to see her, because it was clear that Zhao Fusheng had arranged to meet Dong Chenxi; otherwise, how could they have shown up together so coincidentally?

"You two... did you plan to meet here?" Zheng Yao looked from Dong Chenxi to Zhao Fusheng and asked.

Zhao Fusheng said nothing, just nodded to Dong Chenxi.

Dong Chenxi casually handed the file she was holding to Zheng Yao: “Take a look at this.”

Puzzled and full of doubts, Zheng Yao opened the file.

A few minutes later, her expression turned strange, and she looked at Zhao Fusheng in surprise: “You’ve seen this?”

Zhao Fusheng nodded: “Actually, I asked her to investigate this matter, and that’s how she found it.”

Zheng Yao’s gaze shifted to Dong Chenxi, who nodded, confirming what Zhao Fusheng had said.

“If this news is true and gets out, it will definitely cause a stir.” Zheng Yao paused for a moment, then said to Zhao Fusheng. As the company’s helm, she knew better than anyone that if the contents of this file leaked, it would likely cause considerable upheaval in the investment circle.

In Dong Chenxi’s report, she had analyzed in detail the recent movements of US tech stocks and a large number of Japanese investors, concluding that the Japanese were planning to speculate on US internet tech stocks.

“Regardless of whether the news is true or not, the issue now is whether to sell NetEase’s stock to SoftBank.” Dong Chenxi said to Zheng Yao with a wry smile.

That was the most critical question.

In fact, Dong Chenxi personally leaned toward not selling, after all, although Ma Xiaoyun had shown considerable potential, even raising eighty million US dollars in financing earlier this year.

But the problem was that NetEase’s stock was performing too well. Based on current trends, it was likely to break through the two-hundred-dollar mark next year.

If that happened, Zhao Fusheng’s original batch of NetEase stock—two million dollars—would become two hundred million. And the shares recently acquired would at least triple in profit.

It must be noted that although the initial investment was small, recently, under Zhao Fusheng’s instructions, Dong Chenxi had used nearly one hundred and seventy million US dollars to acquire NetEase stock.

In other words, if NetEase’s stock rose to two hundred dollars per share, the future investment fund would net five hundred million from this alone.

US dollars, no less!

In Dong Chenxi's view, unless Zhao Fusheng was crazy, he would never agree to this deal.

Zheng Yao then slowly spoke up: "I think there's absolutely no need for that. Let the Japanese do whatever they want; we'll just quietly keep buying up US stocks, and maybe we can make a small profit."

Her thinking was clear: the other party was a multinational conglomerate, backed by countless Japanese financial groups, with both financial and human resources to play this game. For the Future Group, setting aside other factors, just in terms of financial strength, they couldn't compare with SoftBank.

Having been in business for so long, if at the start Zheng Yao might have been complacent over a few hundred million in profit, now that she understood more, she realized that in the financial market, a few hundred million US dollars meant nothing.

If they were speculating in futures, a drop of just 0.1% in an index could mean losing tens of millions of dollars. Not to mention that the US stock market, led by the Dow, had no limits on gains or losses.

In other words, today you might be a billionaire, and tomorrow, with a Black Monday, you could become a penniless pauper.

Therefore, Zheng Yao's idea was to be more conservative.

Having both stated their views, their eyes focused on Zhao Fusheng. Clearly, they were waiting for his decision, since he was the boss.

Zhao Fusheng sat there, silent for a long time, before finally speaking with a smile: "Actually, I think this is very simple."

Simple?

Dong Chenxi and Zheng Yao exchanged bewildered glances, completely unable to understand what Zhao Fusheng meant. A deal involving hundreds of millions of dollars, and he called it simple? Was the guy crazy?

Zhao Fusheng was certainly not crazy. Precisely because he wasn't crazy, he could make the most correct decision.

The onlooker sees the game best; no one knew better than Zhao Fusheng the future potential of Ma Xiaoyun and his company, or rather, no one knew better than him just how enormous a piece of cake the domestic e-commerce market was.

Zhao Fusheng was determined to have his share of that pie!