NOVPUB
Chapter 1131: Chapter 989: Known to Every Household
Beijing.
The Zhan Xi family was about to give birth.
They had checked into the hospital, and it seemed that the delivery might be just a couple of days away.
Chai Ren was there the whole time, bustling about busily.
Peeling fruit, telling stories, helping with walks... and occasionally handling work calls, he hadn’t been home for three days, staying in the hospital instead. However, he was keeping vigil in the Special Care Ward.
Everything was available there.
After taking a call, Chai Ren smiled faintly.
"Honey, what are you smiling about?"
Zhan Xi, rubbing her round belly, asked curiously.
"Oh, nothing much, just some trouble Little Tang is going to face. I bet he is so annoyed right now, he’s hiding out in Sanya’s villa and doesn’t dare to return to Shanghai. This is just too funny to me."
Chai Ren couldn’t stop laughing.
"By the way, didn’t Hurun release the list today? Is Little Tang really number one?" Zhan Xi had discussed this with Chai Ren a few days ago when the event was unfolding, and Chai Ren was confident that Tang Qing would be number one.
"Of course, four hundred and thirty-seven billion RMB, what else could it be but number one?" Chai Ren disclosed.
"That much?" Zhan Xi appeared a bit surprised.
"Yeah, astonishing, isn’t it?" Chai Ren couldn’t help but marvel too.
Such a rapid accumulation of wealth was going to blind many people this time; now that Tang Qing’s business empire was nearly fully established, as long as he continued to dig deep, nobody was going to take that number one spot from him.
Each of Tang Qing’s majority-owned companies
was a very promising premium asset.
Regarding Tang Qing’s ’crowning’,
Chai Ren harbored no jealousy but was happy for him instead.
Tang Qing’s friends had saved his life several times.
They had also helped expand his family business many times over, forming the now formidable ’Africa United Mining Group.’ After such a long time working together, Chai Ren had come to regard Tang Qing as a brother.
The better Tang Qing did,
The happier he was.
"We also have to thank him for the food supplies; doctors say our daughter is exceptionally healthy." As she spoke, Zhan Xi’s face gleamed with maternal pride. Gender screening, in 2006 in Huaxia, was not yet prohibited.
"I’m really looking forward to seeing what kind of miracles he will create," Chai Ren said fondly, looking at his wife’s stomach.
Then he remembered something.
"Oh right, honey, Tang Qing is coming to Beijing in a few days."
Zhan Xi asked puzzledly, "What is he coming for?"
"He promised CCTV an exclusive TV interview. It’s a weekly program that will be recorded soon. To ride on the wave of publicity, they postponed the episode that was already prepared."
"That makes sense. Before long, the whole country will be paying attention to Tang Qing and his wealth. When the time comes, remind Zheng Lin to give them a heads up, don’t let the folks at CCTV overlook him; there are quite a few arrogant ones over there," Zhan Xi said.
"That’s for sure. I’ll go pick him up myself," Chai Ren nodded.
The Zheng family’s influence at CCTV was almost unquestionable.
"Mm," Zhan Xi nodded.
The importance of Tang Qing
after being in her husband’s family for a long time
and understanding the Chai family’s business, she was even more aware of how beneficial Tang Qing was to the Chai family’s future. Tang Qing’s overseas connections were too ’strong’ and mysterious, and he was currently the Chai family’s most important international partner.
...
That whole day,
Tang Qing received dozens of interview requests.
Major TV stations, newspapers, and portal sites, many of which Tang Qing had never heard of, all casting their nets as if trying to catch a prize, regardless of whether they could succeed.
After some thought,
Tang Qing declined most of them.
He only agreed to three.
CCTV’s "Dialogue," Sina Finance, and Comet Video.
The first, because it was Huaxia’s mouthpiece, the most influential news media on the mainland, deserved some respect, plus Sheng Tang Group was also one of CCTV’s advertisers.
With Sina, he had previously promised Rong Ying, that ’former paparazzo,’ he couldn’t forget about her if he accepted others’ interviews. The third was to support his own company.
This time they were preparing a live video broadcast.
He guessed it would attract a substantial number of users.
It was also one of the perks of being number one on the list; this shocking ’entrance’ and ’unique’ status would make his brands memorable, an excellent advertisement.
...
That evening,
following the News Broadcast,
CCTV News Channel replayed:
"This morning, the Hurun Research Institute released the 2006 Hurun Wealth Rankings. The overall wealth of the listed entrepreneurs has increased compared to last year, and the brightest among them is the first place changing hands..."
Beijing Satellite TV:
"Tang Qing, the nationwide top scorer of the 2006 college entrance examination, a second-year student at Fudan University. Now, he has another identity: Huaxia’s richest man inland, with a total property of over forty billion RMB..."
Shanghai TV Station: 𝖓𝖔𝖛𝔭𝖚𝖇.𝔠𝖔𝔪
Mango Satellite TV:
Hong Kong TVB:
...
Tang Qing once again became the talk of all the major TV stations’ financial news.
Even those not online, not listening to the radio, or too busy working during the day to watch TV were stunned: a young man, not even twenty years old, had suddenly become Huaxia’s richest person inland, with assets having more than doubled from the previous year’s richest person.
This time,
he really became a household name.
After dinner,
Tang Qing showed up again in the Penguin group, calming down his ’injured’ classmates so they wouldn’t think he was too arrogant. As soon as Tang Qing appeared, his classmates’ ’enthusiasm’ flooded the screen.
The class teacher Shen Mei said: To avoid everyone talking at once, one question per person, and no more questions after that, I will call on you one by one. First up, Liu Ming.
"Tang Qing, is the news true? Do you really have over forty billion?"
Tang Qing: "It’s not that mysterious; it’s all property, not cash, and it doesn’t account for debt. It just looks very impressive. To be honest, it’s actually not that much."
"Isn’t Comet Group making a lot of money?"
Tang Qing: "It is profitable, but much of it is intangible assets. The profits are all reinvested, in buying and building theater circuits and data centers. Sheng Tang Group is the same; aside from paying wages, nearly all earnings go to debt repayment. It’s similar for the other companies."
"Tang Qing, how much do you owe the banks?"
Tang Qing: "The exact amount is a business secret, but it’s no less than ten billion RMB." Ten billion was actually the estimated amount already published by the media, so it wasn’t confidential.
The apparent debt of Tang Qing’s companies indeed was not far off from that figure.
But the true situation was
merely around twenty billion.
Mainly, this was used for a few companies to borrow for building headquarters. The rest was all dollar-denominated debt, borrowed from the Myanmar Bank Group—a case of the left hand borrowing from the right. It could be settled with a stroke of the pen, not considered debt.
"It’s terrifying that you owe the banks so much money. If I owed that much, I definitely wouldn’t be able to sleep."
Tang Qing: "Heh, just pay it off slowly."
"..."
After answering about a dozen questions, Tang Qing excused himself and left. He briefly participated in the university Penguin group chat, which was asking more or less the same questions, but he eventually exited, citing company matters that needed attention.
At least he had done enough ’face-saving work.’
What remained
was to carry on as usual
and wait for the ’hype’ to die down.
