Reinventing the Millennium

February 2003 is the year of Guiwei in the Chinese lunar calendar, the year of the sheep.

According to Xu Shen's "Shuowen" of the Eastern Han Dynasty, sheep are auspicious and have auspicious meanings.

Fang Zhuo had a very comfortable holiday this year. He took his family for a physical examination and found out that they were fine. He took everyone to visit Shanghai, taste delicious food, drive Enzo on the track, and take a ferry to Huangpu.

Later, he returned to his hometown to worship his ancestors.

It is worth mentioning that the news that the Forbes billionaire returned to the county in a low-key manner spread out, which alerted the local government to receive him.

My father usually doesn't like to talk much, but on the way back he couldn't help but sigh: "I didn't know that the county leaders were so friendly to the people, so enthusiastic, and even took photos together. It was really the most glorious time in my life."

"Dad, if you want to be more glorious, I can also think of ways to take a photo with Mayor Farah." Fang Zhuo felt that his father's glory was easier to satisfy.

Fang Tong frowned and thought about it, but still shook his head to reject the proposal: "Forget it, it's very awkward. If I do a good job in selling goods and people praise me, that's fine. I just want to open your pocket and take out the money..."

"For the sake of GDP, it's normal. The attitude of the county is actually okay. The last time I went to Yangcheng, the businessmen there didn't know how they knew about me, so they stopped me halfway." Fang Zhuo said with a smile.

"Then do you want to invest money?" Mother Zhao Shumei asked.

"In fact, there is no suitable industry in my hometown." Fang Zhuo thought for a while, "First donate a batch of medical supplies to the hospital system, and then donate some needed things to the school. As for investment, don't rush it."

Neither Zhao Shumei nor Fang Tong commented on this, and it was up to him to decide on his son's career.

The group returned to Shanghai on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month and spent the Lantern Festival together.

The next thing about family is the choice of new house.

Originally, Fang Zhuo was flying back and forth, sometimes in Beijing, sometimes in New York, and he had no requirements for housing alone. In addition, Yu, Su, and Zhou all chose to buy a house here, which is very close to the company...

At that time, these three people had all obtained the cash out of their shares in Guohao.com, but his pocket was extremely clean, so he rented it here.

There is a lot of money available now, and there are more options to choose from.

Fang Zhuo left this matter to his parents, uncle and aunt, and together with the decoration of the facade of Plaza 66, they used it as their entry point in the city of Shanghai.

He felt that people should still do things that would have more meaning in life, and he would ask his family about their wishes later.

After the Lantern Festival, on February 16, Fang Zhuo had a phone call with Yike New York last night. He went to bed relatively late and got up relatively late. When he came out of the room, he saw a family studying the real estate map of Shanghai.

"It's time to choose. Pudong will definitely appreciate in value." Fang Zhuo drank a glass of warm water and said casually, "I went out today and won't come back to eat."

"Where to eat?" Mother Zhao Shumei asked with concern.

"I was shouted at by the leader in the afternoon...it seemed like we were playing cards." Fang Zhuo also felt a little strange. Today was the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, and Lao Qiu didn't know where to go. "I'll go to the company for a meeting in the morning. If I don't come back at noon, I have something to do." I’ll call Xiao Wang for small matters.”

Zhao Shumei nodded, knowing that it had been half a month since Forbes, except that there were more phone calls, and there was a bit of noise when she got home, she finally saw something different today.

She sighed: "My son looks like the richest man."

"..." Fang Zhuo called this the rich man's fame stress syndrome. He turned to his sister and said, "Qiqi, aren't you going to Jiaotong University? Help me pay attention to the news from the School of Microelectronics when you have time. Look at Professor Chen Jin’s situation.”

Zhao Suqi nodded steadily, knowing that his brother and Professor Chen were cooperating, and this cooperation seemed quite important.

Fang Zhuo said hello to his father, uncle, and aunt again, and thought about today's itinerary. Instead of driving a Ferrari, he chose Xiao Yu's Audi.

I had a meeting at Hang Lung 23 in the morning and discussed the progress of iMusic. It will basically be launched around the end of this month. It will be equipped with two payment methods, credit card online payment and Paypal, to help American consumers purchase music.

It is worth mentioning that Paypal, founded by Musk, was a merchant services business announced in January this year, and Yike's willingness to try was regarded by the development department as a somewhat radical move.

At the same time, iMusic will also officially block the two-way function of the software.

After Yiko and Sony Music reached a cooperation, restricting functions became an inevitable choice.

According to news shared in New York, Apple may hold a new product launch conference in March or April, which is likely to be the time when they announce iTunes music payment.

Fang Zhuo believes that it is necessary to start the era of online music purchase before Apple. In addition, there is news about competitors. Ipod seems to have flaws in the battery solution. During the research, the Yike product department found excessive power consumption. Fast situation.

The product director compared the differences between his own battery solutions and those of his competitors and found that the batteries provided by the domestic manufacturer ATL had better and more stable performance.

The publicity department in New York considered doing something about this.

Product Director Xu Keden also proposed the research of new products at the meeting. Due to the stimulation of strong competitors, Xu Keden did not relax just because he made products that could make a name for himself in overseas markets, and actively considered upgrading. Performance.

At present, both Yike and Apple focus on product upgrades based on storage capacity, which is directly related to breakthroughs in the development of hard drives and flash memory.

But Xu Keden has been thinking about upgrades in other directions.

Fang Zhuo participated in the discussion and pointed out a direction for reference. The screens of Ipod and P1 are both black and white, and TVs are also moving from black and white to color. This is obviously a way forward.

The meeting time is a bit too long. Fang Zhuo will rush to the old leader's house at two o'clock in the afternoon.

I thought this person's card game was an excuse to talk about something, but I didn't expect that the three people in the family were already playing poker.

"Brother Zheng, District Chief Qiu, Mr. Liu."

Fang Zhuo said hello. Apart from Liu Suyi, the CEO of Yonghe Real Estate, whom he had met twice before, he did not expect that Zheng Danrui was also there.

"Sit down, I've been waiting for you for a while. Come on, rub your hands." Judy shook off the losing cards.

Fang Zhuo was a little confused and couldn't figure out what was going on today.

As he sat down, he said, "Brother Zheng, aren't you busy today?"

"I was busy at first, but the pick was taken away. If I have nothing to do, I just come to see Lao Qiu." Zheng Danrui said calmly.

Fang Zhuoran hesitated and didn't answer. He didn't want to know about the struggle situation.

Liu Suyi poured a cup of tea for the young CEO, and silently remembered the name "Brother Zheng" in his heart.

"How much do you play?" Fang Zhuo asked with a smile while playing mahjong.

"I don't play with money." Zheng Danrui said.

Fang Zhuo shrugged: "That's just right, I'm not good at mahjong."

"What do you do?" Judy asked curiously.

Fang Zhuo smiled and said: "It's not very good. I don't want to play with money anyway."

Judy rolled her eyes.

After playing this game for a while, Fang Zhuo realized that Zheng Danrui grew up in Sichuan Province (Anti-Harmony) and later studied in Beijing, so he could understand Mahjong as an entertainment activity.

After playing like this for a while, he gradually felt that there was really nothing else going on today, just the card game, and the tension in his heart relaxed.

There are two leaders and two company CEOs. The former does not talk about political affairs, but only occasionally asks about the company's operating conditions, and the topic slowly spreads.

What is it easy for powerful and wealthy people to talk about when they get together?

Let’s talk about the economic development outside Shanghai and the changing trends of the international situation.

Fang Zhuo maintained his own persona and only talked about the development of the Internet and occasionally the company's competition in New York. Soon, he felt that the discussion between these three people about the international situation was not much different from that of his father and uncle.

However, they added many seemingly reasonable reasons when they talked about the Gulf and whether the United States would take action.

For example, the pressure of international public opinion, for example, the opposition the United States encountered when speaking at the United Nations.

In just these two days, anti-war activities were held in different cities around the world.

The three people finally unified their opinions and believed that the United States would not make any big move in the Gulf.

Judy took a sip of tea and suddenly saw Fang Zhuo across from him with a strange expression. He asked with a smile: "Mr. Fang is the one who has gone abroad, why don't you give us some opinions? I speak my mind without reservation. .”

Fang Zhuo reached out to add tea to the old leader and thought for two seconds: "I don't understand these things, so it's hard to say anything."

He continued: "I will simply make three points."

The three of them were stunned. The tone of these words seemed familiar to them.

"War is the continuation of politics, this is a sentence in "On War"."

"The economic base determines the superstructure, this is Marx's thought."

"The euro was officially circulated last year, and the strongman in the Gulf announced that he would use euros to settle oil. This has touched the bottom line of dollar politics in the United States."

Fang Zhuo shrugged and said decisively - he couldn't help but said decisively: "I have the opposite opinion than you, and I will definitely take action."

Three points and three sentences, concise and concise.

Zheng Danrui thought for a while and gave many reasons to support his opinion.

Qiu Di and Liu Suyi beside them also helped.

Men are always a little out of control when talking about politics.

Fang Zhuo is not as rich in theory as "Brother Zheng", nor can he compare with the analysis and judgment of certain situations by these three people. He just smiled and said: "After all, you are just talking about it for fun, just talking about poker games." .”

"I'm different. I have private equity funds."

"The fund's investment in client funds will follow my judgment."

"Do you dare to put your assets to the test with crude oil futures to verify your judgment?"

Fang Zhuo gave a speechless example.

Zheng Danrui "coughed" in a leadership-like tone: "Mr. Fang's mouth has been taught to you for a long time. There happened to be an editor-in-chief of Xinmin Evening News who wanted to interview our richest man in Shanghai."

"Can we still rely on Brother Zheng?" Fang Zhuo wondered.

"Everyone is interested in a young rich man." Zheng Danrui said, "I saw the 'Ten Business Tips from the Richest Man in Shanghai' yesterday."

"It's quite embarrassing." Fang Zhuo commented, yes, but not as awkward as Brother Zheng's blunt change of topic.

Regarding the wealth opportunities brought about by the international situation, MIGA Fund and PL Fund are well prepared. Due to the act of delivering funds to the Li family, the funds have absorbed a lot of tentative asset management, and each transaction is not too big. But it adds up to a lot.

In addition to the stock market and sub-prime debt, this money will also be used to drink some crude oil futures soup.

Moreover, because the MIGA fund has landed in Pudong New Area, Fang Zhuo is also considering attracting some domestic funds to build a brand.

Being the richest man in Shanghai is a good title, and the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce that I participated in years ago is a good place to make friends. In late February, there will be an honorary election of vice president.

The poker game continued, and the topic turned to corporate development. Fang Zhuo happily chatted about Sina and Yike. The other three people at the table remembered the young president's judgment and planned to use time to verify this statement.

At eight o'clock in the evening, Fang Zhuo and Liu Suyi said goodbye and left together, leaving space for the two leaders.

"Mr. Liu, MIGA Fund has recently had operating opportunities in crude oil. Would you like to invest some money to play with it?"

Fang Zhuo did not forget to develop customers before getting on the bus.

Liu Suyi thought about the relationship between Mr. Fang and the two leaders, and agreed: "Mr. Fang, I don't understand this at all. How about investing two million for fun?"

He planned to add another million if Xiao Fang was not satisfied with this number.

"Okay, no problem." Fang Zhuo said with a smile, "I asked a few bosses I know in the past few days, and the most they are willing to take is 500,000, or make money from real estate."

Liu Suyi replied in his heart that he didn't see you calling the deputy leader "Brother Zheng".

He smiled and said: "If Mr. Fang is willing to play real estate, there are still many opportunities in Pudong."

Fang Zhuo shook his head: "I can't play. I just recently planned to buy a house in Shanghai."

"Hahaha." Liu Suyi laughed, this sentence was a bit like a joke.

Fang Zhuo left a business card of the manager of MIGA Fund in Pudong, and will be responsible for the official process of customers with 2 million Huaxia coins.

That evening, Fang Zhuo went home and contacted the editor-in-chief of "Xinmin Evening News" and set a time for an exclusive interview at the end of the month.

He has discovered the intuitive effect brought by the name "Shanghai's richest man". Not to mention the leadership's attention, Yike's shipments have suddenly increased.

In addition, Yike has received investment invitations from many local governments, indicating that they can have preferential policies.

Occasionally, there are still people who can’t figure out the situation. Yike obviously has a factory production line, but they don’t know that it is the industry of the “richest man in Shanghai”.

Now is the time when the word GDP is gaining prominence, and Fang Zhuo estimates that many people on the Forbes list will receive such invitations.

Fang Zhuo declined most of them, but in a provincial capital like Luzhou that suddenly burst out with enthusiasm, it was hard for him to refuse.

My parents also asked me why I didn’t buy or invest in Luzhou during the holidays.

Fang Zhuo mentioned many factors, but one was really inconvenient to mention. He thought it was easy to meet people who had interacted with each other, but then he thought about it, now that they meet each other, who can recognize him now?

In mid-to-late February, Yike continued to be busy, while the medical department launched a large-scale practical application with the second-generation ID card.

At the end of the month, Fang Zhuo accepted an exclusive interview with Xinmin Evening News and talked about the bright future of the Internet industry.

At almost the same time, Xu Mingchang, another man who was unhappy with the title of richest man, also participated in a TV program on Dragon TV. He talked about his ups and downs in Hong Kong, and occasionally mentioned the Internet in his words, which was a little bit dismissive. Its wealth value.