Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled

Chapter 724: Chapter 532 President of the Company

Spring in March, the air still carried a slight chill.

As the New Year festivities faded in early March, everyone was preparing to dive into the work of a brand new year.

For Chen Pingsheng, with no more random multipliers below the 10-billion-scale “Golden Finger,” many of Tengying Group’s small and medium projects had lost their significance.

However, he had plenty of trillion-level projects brewing.

For example, Tengfei New Energy Cars, which went public in January, and Tengde Era, which was aggressively investing more than 20 billion annually in solid-state battery research and development.

These were all trillion-level starting projects.

Although the new energy vehicle industry enjoyed strong domestic support, including favorable policies around tax exemptions and subsidies,

it was still immature. This immaturity primarily stemmed from battery technology issues and the lack of consumer trust.

Chen Pingsheng estimated it would take at least three years for Tengfei New Energy to truly cross the profitability threshold and achieve financial breakeven.

This wasn’t unique to his company; the entire new energy vehicle industry was surviving on financing and government subsidies.

Without these two factors, the only remaining company in the market would likely be his.

After all, he’s the only one who’s seriously put in real money, a whopping 100 billion of his own funds, to build cars.

Although small projects could no longer benefit from the “Golden Finger Grandpa’s” random multipliers, Chen Pingsheng’s earlier stock investments were remarkably rewarding.

Meituan, which went public last year, saw its stock price soar, now boasting a market cap of 400 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Pinduoduo also climbed to 30 billion US dollars in valuation, with a strong possibility of surpassing .

He was a top-ten shareholder in both stocks. Once you have money, making more money becomes incredibly easy.

All it takes is slightly better judgment.

He wasn’t in need of cash right now and had no plans to liquidate shares for the moment. He’d leave that for when Tengfei New Energy needed funding later this year.

As for now, with the 7 to 8 billion still in his pocket, Chen Pingsheng planned to allocate 4 billion toward buying a plot of land in Golden Mountain to build a twelve-story Cloudtop Villa.

This wasn’t just an ordinary residential building—it would include world-class, top-tier medical services and a complete range of entertainment facilities.

The rooftop would feature an open-air Siheyuan courtyard—half for living, half for growing flowers and plants.

On a rainy day, making tea in the open air seemed like an exceedingly pleasant way to pass time.

He had already assigned a dedicated team to handle the matter in Golden Mountain.

This would be his primary villa in Golden Mountain and was a project that had to be completed.

The remaining funds: 2 billion would go to the Dream Fund in Guangzhou, 1 billion to Tengnong Breeding.

The little bit left would just serve as his pocket money.

With three kids at home to raise, he had to prepare a bit more pocket money to cover the year’s expenses.

With clear plans in place, by the time his secretary Lin Qiunan came to see him, it was already 11 a.m.

Comrade Lao Chen had a sudden idea—he wanted to open a 60s-70s-style state-run big cafeteria in Magic City.

Lin Qiunan had found a few storefronts that seemed decent, though the rent was relatively high.

Chen Pingsheng didn’t plan on buying the storefronts. Starting a small business and immediately spending billions on purchasing storefronts? That would make him just like his younger sister, Chen Qi.

When she first started, she was full of passion, but once the business became profitable, she completely became a hands-off boss.

No sense of responsibility whatsoever.

If she had rent in the millions pressing on her head every year, would she still dare to live so capriciously?

“Not bad, pick her the most expensive one.”

Comrade Lao Chen seemed unusually ambitious after arriving in Magic City. He wasn’t thinking about joining the ranks of the Fortune 500, but he still wanted to rely on himself to create a publicly listed company.

The idea of recreating the once-famous “Red Star Big Cafeteria” from the 60s and 70s was entirely his brainchild.

Nostalgic-style restaurants, when done well, could indeed invoke feelings of fondness, especially for the older generation.

Though, creating significant scale with this concept would likely be impossible now.

Didn’t see Gao Hu in a similar predicament? He was clearly tying himself into knots.

“Chen, every spring in March, we usually receive many university invitations for speeches. Mr. Chang also said if there’s another opportunity, we must include him.”

“He just wants to make up for not having attended university and take the chance to show off a little.”

Chen Pingsheng naturally understood Chang Fu’s intentions. Ever since that guy joined Tengying Entertainment, he had been doing remarkably well.

The financial reports showed impressive gains, and the stock price followed suit with a strong climb.

“Help him make the arrangements. Film schools in Magic City and the art schools in the Capital should welcome him to speak.”

“Got it. You’re not going?”

Lin Qiunan handed him two special invitations. The names on them were extraordinary: one was from Tsinghua, and the other from Peking University.

Once upon a time, Tengying Group couldn’t even get through the doors of these two universities.

Now, they had been personally invited.

This signified that Tengying had officially become a top-tier private enterprise in the country.

This was a symbol of strength and honor.

Leaning slightly against his executive chair, Chen Pingsheng seemed lost in his thoughts.

“I won’t go. Back when my mom told me to study hard, she never thought I’d end up giving a lecture at these two universities. It’s a bit surreal.”

Chen Pingsheng continued, “Notify Xu Dong, the head of Tengfei Enterprises, and Zhang Zhiyao from Tengde Era. They need more public exposure. We’ve invested so much in the new energy sector over the years—it’s about time the world knew.”

“Also, have Yang Qian, the president of Antler Coffee, tour all the 985 universities nationwide. It’ll not only boost brand recognition but also engage future potential customers for Antler Coffee.”

“And one more thing—Chu Qiuyan is doing exceptionally well at the Dream Fund. People used to call her the goddess of startup entrepreneurs in her university days. Many assumed she’d fade into obscurity without the title of Bobo Milk Tea’s president. It’s time for her to take the Dream Fund back to the dazzling stage of this Big Era.”

For Chen Pingsheng, aside from university speeches to recruit talent for Tengfei New Energy, he had never participated in such activities again.

In his eyes, visiting universities yielded nothing more than being admired and envied by young students, offering no real value otherwise.

Moreover, even Hangzhou Ma, who loved grand speeches, seemed to be facing a shift in public sentiment.

In the past ten years, he had been the most high-profile leader in the business world.

Comparatively, Shenzhen Ma remained as unshakable as a mountain.

If Mr. Ma truly fell from grace, it would be somewhat regrettable.

After all, there was something genuinely bold and spirited about him. He dared to say what others wouldn’t and do what others couldn’t.

For these reasons alone, he was deserving of respect as a heavyweight leader.

Lin Qiunan didn’t quite grasp the thoughts running through Chen Pingsheng’s mind. Tengying Group’s CEOs could definitely handle public exposure.

Not only could they build the image of “star-level CEOs,” but their presence could also attract massive attention to their products.

Similar to how Mr. Ma had boosted Taobao.

No amount of celebrity endorsements could match the traffic Mr. Ma generated himself.

A new era had arrived. Even top executives had to find ways to craft personas online and enhance their company’s visibility.

It wasn’t just the employees feeling the pressure—the CEOs were starting to face it too.