After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future

"In this lifetime, just witnessing history."

The sound of the midnight bell startled Lu Liang, as this year's Black Swan events were exceptionally frequent.

[November 9, the businessman won 304 electoral votes.]

In America's fifty states, each state holds different sway, some states have more votes, others have fewer, and still others cast abstention votes.

Looking at the previous 522 votes and the 522 votes from the session before that, just surpassing 270 votes generally gives a 98% likelihood of winning the election.

The businessman surpassing 300 votes pretty much meant a sure victory, since no election in history had reached a total of 600 votes.

"The peso could be worth a shot, at least for the next year, US stocks will re-enter a crazy bull market."

The 'businessman's reverse indicator' was Lu Liang's forward indicator for speculation, but the businessman's political declarations couldn't be taken entirely at face value.

Elections are like wooing a woman; sweet promises are made before sleeping together, but afterward, you might go from a little sweetie to Mrs. Niu.

However, the first and the fourth year should see the fulfillment of political declarations, one acting as a role model, the other seeking re-election next term.

All night, Lu Liang planned the direction accordingly, like betting on the peso crashing and gold soaring a month later.

This swan wasn't as black as Old England's Brexit, but it was at least a grey swan with many profitable interests to be schemed.

Both the peso and gold could be opportunities for short-term speculation while US stocks and other risk assets are worth holding in the mid to long term.

"After finishing this deal, that should be just about it."

Lu Liang reviewed the asset details which currently showed a total of $7.58 billion in domestic and foreign assets. The initial capital was $6 billion, and the two funds had increased by only 26% over the past six months.

Compared to other funds, this was indeed quite a profit, even surpassing the annual total earnings of most private funds.

But he was Lu Liang, after all, the one who made dividends of over $9 million a year on investments of $2 million.

The settlement for the second phase was due early in December, along with the dividends for the third phase, others had high expectations of him, and he had demands of himself.

At least before the dividends, there had to be over 50% in returns, which would make just the management fees around $500 million.

He also then had the money to transfer the shares of Ningde.

As dawn broke and with the second debate concluded, scandals about the businessman burst forth explosively.

Within just one day, at least ten women had accused the businessman of sexual assault.

The latest polls showed the businessman had only a 42% approval rating, trailing far behind Larry's 49%.

No one expected him to become the deciding authority in the next term.

"Truly inspiring," Lu Liang said with a smirk upon learning this.

Too bad he wasn't in North America, or he would have definitely added fuel to the flames to make them burn even more fiercely.

The greater the public opposition, the more effective the outcome once it emerged, causing more severe market fluctuations.

Just like with Brexit, when Lu Liang stood against the whole world, he made over $1 billion overnight.

He hoped to replicate this success, but that was only a hope, as the businessman still had a 42% approval rate.

Unlike Brexit, which had almost a 0.1% chance of happening, yet the miracle happened, and David Cameron was just as adamant.

The upcoming week of the national holiday saw Panda taking the lead in initiating a major battle among livestream platforms.

Panda directly recruited two of Douyu's 'Three Sillies', and Huya's Miss and Hai were poached as well.

Little Wang leveraged his network in the entertainment industry, inviting top stars such as Chen Chichi, Lin Gou, and Huang Xiaoming to join the platform for a genuine all-star live streaming competition.

Although it was triggered by livestream-based sales, Little Wang didn't target this aspect directly initially; he decided to grab traffic first, expand the base, and then move onto livestream sales.

During the national holiday, Douyu suddenly announced another investment of $150 million from Tencent, taking an offensive approach, and challenging the whole industry.

Panda's hosts were the first to be targeted, and Li Manli's Mengmengda Studio also received an invitation from Douyu.

A three-year contract with a signing fee of $6 million might have been appropriate a year ago, but this year, it was far from enough.

"$18 million, your value has risen quite fast," Lu Liang exclaimed, almost catching up with the signing fees of second-tier stars.

It was Douyu that made the offer to Li Manli, proposing $6 million for the first year and agreeing to pay a $4 million penalty to Panda on her behalf.

Li Manli responded in a muffled voice, "I don't want to go."

After livestreaming for over a year, she was no longer a novice; the contract amount offered by Douyu was high.

But it came with conditions, requiring 150 hours of livestreaming per month and 700,000 in revenue.

Unlike originally with Panda, which was content with just 90 hours a month on Lu Liang's account and didn't require revenue.

She felt it was enough as long as she had enough money; too much was of no use.

After all, at 20 years old, she occasionally stayed in the 60-million Tangchen Yipin, often lived in the 50-million She Mountain villa, and drove a 26-million Pagani.

Besides the annual post-tax contract fee of 800,000, she also had a monthly income of about 100,000 to 200,000 from gifts, which she could never fully spend.

Over the past year, the most expensive thing she had bought was a watch for Lu Liang, worth 1.2 million.

Now, four months had passed, and her bank savings had once again hit a seven-digit figure, beginning with a two.

When she wanted to buy something, she could generally do so without looking at the price, following her whims, buying whatever she wanted. Gradually, she lost her craving for money, and now livestreaming was just a way to pass the time when Lu Liang was away.

"Even if I don't go, I might mention it to Long Fei and ask him to raise the three-year contract fee to 10 million."

Lu Liang smiled and did not insist, although he seemed to hold 90% of the shares of Mengmengda Studio.

But the few million in contract fees on the account had never been touched, used only to pay for utilities, management fees, and employee salaries.

During the National Day holidays, Lu Liang stayed at home, celebrating the festival with Li Manli since Su Wanyu had gone to her hometown, Wang Chuting was out on an interview, and Zhang Tian'ai had not returned from filming.

Meanwhile, they went to see a movie, and Lu Liang had an idea why next year's War Wolf 2's box office would explode.

This year marked the first year of transformation for domestic films, where movies starring "little fresh meats" and "damsels" completely flopped at the box office. The dominance of Hollywood blockbusters also waned as Mekong River Action surged to the top, becoming the king of box office during the National Holidays.

"War Wolf 2, coming at such a good time; once nostalgia is over-consumed, admiration turns into scorn."

Capital seeks profit and desires stable returns; the explosive box office of Mekong was unexpected by anyone.

Though the patriotic sentiment of Mekong had sold well, and many projects of various types were greenlit, producing a final product took time.

Contrastingly, War Wolf 2, which was finished filming and in post-production, was expected to be released next summer, taking full advantage of the market trend.

Once a multitude of patriotic movies crowded the market, even if the films were good, with excess viewing, it could lead to nausea and vomiting.

Moreover, as capital hurried the process, poorly made, illogical movies just aiming to cash in on patriotism were sure to be plentiful.

A good theme, likely ruined within two years.

"But over five billion is just too much; could next year's international situation really change that drastically?"

Lu Liang furrowed his brows, pondering deeper reasons. Last year's Monster Hunt reached over two billion on hype alone; the second place was Lost in Hong Kong, a sequel, and the third was Xia Luo.

This year's Mermaid achieved over three billion, promoted under the premise of owing Zhou Xingxing a movie ticket, which was then settled, owing no more.

Though China's film market was rapidly increasing, Wu Jing seemed to have no explanation for the sudden leap from three billion to over five billion.

Surely some frustrating international event had occurred, prompting people to participate in retaliatory viewing.

International incidents could influence the global market, affecting forex and Gold, indicating profitable opportunities.

Lu Liang thought for a long time but could not pinpoint the reason, so he decided to stop thinking about it, as there were still ten months left.

In the beginning, there would surely be signs, and by then, it wouldn't be too late to think about it.

The entire October passed in mundane daily routines, mundane being relatively speaking.

The Hongguang Mini,

Toward the end of October, underwent massive deliveries.

Suddenly, the "spicy fish head" design of the cars appeared on streets nationwide.

Lu Liang's car also arrived, and when driven on the road, it was photographed, essentially providing free promotion for Wuling.

Consequently, numerous internet celebrities, seeking to jump on the trend, bought one each and covered them in extensive graffiti.

Adding a few different colors to the stark black and white roads, they attracted a large number of fans to purchase.

In 40 days of its release, the Hongguang Mini had over 180,000 orders, leading all major automotive charts, undisputedly.

Owners of the cars, eager to show off, became like faucets, praising the benefits of new energy vehicles. At less than one cent per kilometer for electricity, it hanged Japanese cars out to dry.

Old stereotypes were slowly changing; orders for BYD Qin and Song, as well as Tesla Model 3, all surged.

By November, the new energy market accelerated once again.