Chapter 379 I Don’t Want to Be on the List
Hurun had finally obtained sponsorship from the Li family, giving him the opportunity to realize his entrepreneurial idea of making a list of the richest people . Letting Lu Yiming work was the only condition for the Li family to agree to cooperate. Now that Lu Yiming refused, he really got off to a bad start.
Hurun urged anxiously, "Mr. Lu, I know that you Xia people like not to show off your wealth, but a person as outstanding as you is like a firefly in the dark night. No matter how you hide yourself, you can't block your light. Please believe in my professionalism. In addition to making you admired by everyone, this list will not have any impact on you. We will never disclose any of your privacy."
Lu Yiming said bluntly : "Promises and oaths don't work on me. I said I won't accept your interview, so go away."
Hurun wanted to say something, but Lu Yiming just stood up and left without giving him a chance to speak.
The Hundred Rich List is a well-known list of people who are good at killing pigs in later generations. Most of the people on the list have a bad ending. Although Lu Yiming is not afraid, he does not want to be tainted by this kind of bad luck.
Maybe at the beginning, some people wanted to be on the list for the sake of novelty, but I think soon, they will taste the fear of being dominated by this list and refuse to cooperate with Hurun.
After being rejected by everyone, Hurun was not discouraged. If you don't cooperate with me, then I will directly let someone investigate your wealth and then not tell you, isn't that the end?
As for whether it is accurate or not - if no one is accurate, then that means no one is accurate.
So, sometimes you will see all kinds of strange people on the Hurun Rich List.
Later, Hurun was no longer satisfied with the Hurun Rich List, so he created a list of writers, a list of philanthropists, etc. All the data was investigated by Hurun himself and then compiled. He himself admitted that the data was only 70% accurate at most.
It can be said that from now on, Hurun will be a rat crossing the street that everyone wants to beat in the eyes of most wealthy people.
Of course, this is all a matter of the future. Now, apart from Lu Yiming, I’m afraid no one knows how difficult the Hurun Rich List is.
Seeing Hu Run leave unwillingly, Zhu Hanwen looked at Lu Yiming with some reproach: "You, he is an international friend after all, can't you be more polite when speaking? Do you know that this can easily cause a diplomatic incident?"
Lu Yiming scoffed at this: "A diplomatic incident? Mr. Zhu, if this can be upgraded to a diplomatic incident, it can only prove that someone is deliberately looking for trouble."
Zhu Hanwen immediately changed the subject: "Aren't you the one who loves to be in the spotlight? You were showing off at a press conference a few days ago, but why are you unhappy now that a foreigner is interviewing you ?"
Lu Yiming spread his hands helplessly: "I was in the limelight before to help Mingyuan Technology overcome difficulties. Although people outside know that I am a wealthy man, they don't know how much property I have, so the attention will not be too high. If I can choose, I don't want to be so high-profile. It doesn't do me any good."
After listening to Lu Yiming's words, Zhu Hanwen agreed with Lu Yiming's philosophy: "People are afraid of being famous just like pigs are afraid of getting fat. It's rare that you can understand this at such a young age."
"So, teacher, look, I want to keep a low profile now, but someone comes to me, right? Hey, my strength is here, it doesn't allow me to keep a low profile."
Hurun's arrival made Lu Yiming suspicious. After all, Hurun's Rich List was only created in 1999, but it is still 1998 now.
What made Lu Yiming even more suspicious was how Hurun targeted him?
Could it be that because of his rebirth, the Hurun Rich List was released a year earlier?
That doesn’t make sense, does it?
Back in the classroom, Lu Yiming was still troubled by this problem and even seemed a little absent-minded during class.
However, nothing happened in the next few days, and Lu Yiming gradually stopped taking the matter to heart and became absorbed in studying, unable to extricate himself.
The final exam is coming soon. This is Lu Yiming's first real major exam since his rebirth. It tests his learning results in the past few months, so he takes it very seriously.
As a result, before anyone knew it, a business magazine called "The Hurun Report" quickly became popular across the country, sparking countless heated discussions.
Although it is called the Hurun Rich List, there are only fifty mainland Chinese billionaires on the list in the first issue.
Ranked first among them is the old red capital written in history textbooks, the famous Rong family, which tops the list with assets of 8.27 billion.
Ranked second is Liu Yongxing, the second oldest of the Liu brothers of Hope Group, with a net worth of 6.6 billion. The four brothers started their business by making feed and were the first group of people to get rich after the reform and opening up in the 1980s. They were rated as "No. 1 among the 500 largest private enterprises in China" by a domestic authoritative organization, and can be regarded as a banner of private enterprises.
Ranked third is Guo Jianxin, who plans to plant trees in the desert. In 1996, he was elected as a member of the 8th National Soil Society's Saline-Alkali Soil Professional Committee. In 1998, he signed a project with the Australian Integrity Fund to "transform desertification in the Horqin grassland and build an eco-city". The Australian side invested 3 billion US dollars, and his net worth was once estimated to be as high as tens of billions.
Unfortunately, fate did not favour him. Due to the Asian financial crisis, the Australian Integrity Fund collapsed and he was implicated. His wealth dropped to half, but he still sat firmly on the throne of one of the top three richest people in Xia Country, looking very powerful.
The fourth and fifth richest people are also celebrities. They are Wu Bingxin of Sanzhu Pharmaceutical and Lu Haitian of Haitian Group, with a net worth of around 4.9 billion each.
But the sixth richest man made many people marvel.
Lu Yiming, seventeen years old, has a net worth of 4.2 billion!
The only billionaire under the age of 30 on the list seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and he was directly ranked in the top ten, which surprised many people.
For a time, countless people were curious about which family this young rich man came from.
With Li Kai's secret promotion, this list quickly caused a sensation as soon as it was released, and even the international media reacted strongly as if they had been injected with chicken blood.
The Financial Times of Britain was the first to jump out and clearly stated its attitude: "The socialist country finally has capitalists!"
Reuters also commented afterwards: "Xiaguo's policy of 'letting some people get rich first' is not just talk. The 17-year-old billionaire is proof of this!"
Hurun, who made the list, has become truly famous now. At least among the rich people in the entire Xia country, everyone knows him now - to be more precise, they are afraid of him, for they are afraid that he will reveal all their assets at some point.
At the same time, 34-year-old Zhang Chaoyang, the Internet pioneer who called on workers to sleep less, had just founded Sohu.
As a top student at Tsinghua University and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, Zhang Chaoyang found himself at the bottom of the Hurun Rich List. As a top student who returned from overseas, he made less money than Nian Guangjiu, who sells melon seeds, Zhao Zhangguang, who makes hair regeneration essence, or even Liu Xiaoqing, the actress.
He immediately swore secretly that he must push Sohu onto the Nasdaq within two years and have a place in the top ten of Xiaguo’s rich list!
After all, I am a well-educated PhD. I can't be worse than a 17-year-old high school student!
Sharing the same idea as Zhang Chaoyang is Li Robin, who just ended his career as a brick-moving brick-moving worker in Silicon Valley. He received investment from Li Yiwen and Lin Shuyi and has returned to China to set up a search engine company.
Looking at Lu Yiming, who ranked sixth on the Hurun Rich List, the three words "seventeen years old" were so dazzling that Li Robin couldn't help but recall what he was doing when he was seventeen.
Oh, I’m still in the first year of high school.
Ma Jieke, who was drinking with his big brother Wu Ying, was extremely excited when he saw Lu Yiming's name on the Hurun Rich List.
"I knew it! I knew Mr. Lu was no ordinary man! He started from scratch at the age of seventeen and is worth four billion two hundred million!"
Wu Ying was also greatly encouraged: "If young people like Lu Yiming can do it, why can't we?"
In Zhongguancun, 25-year-old Liu Dongzheng squeezed in with 12,000 yuan in his pocket and rented a small counter to sell recorders and CDs. The counter was called "Jingdong Multimedia".
His biggest dream at that time was to marry his girlfriend Gong Xiaojing. The names and life stories of the rich people on the Hurun Rich List were nothing more than after-dinner talk for him.
Twenty-seven-year-old Ma Teng was eagerly discussing a big project with Zhang Zhidong. It was obvious that Lu Yiming's asset value deeply stimulated him.
Ding Lei, who is slightly plump, was sitting in front of his computer desk eating pork trotter rice. His portal website was officially launched. He registered the company domain name at 163 and named it NetEase, which means "easy to access the Internet."
Wang Lin, who has been in the real estate industry for ten years, is considered an old hand. Wanda Football Club has created a myth of 55 unbeaten games in the A-League, and the company's name has been well-known.
Xu Yin, on the other hand, had just completed his solo career and was working on projects in Baiyun in the third year after Evergrande was founded.
Among the fifty names compiled by Hurun, among these future bigwigs, only Zhang Chaoyang made the list, and he was at the bottom of the list.
However, Lu Yiming, who is only seventeen years old and a senior high school student who has not yet graduated, is the person they must look up to.
Lu Yiming, who had been studying hard, finally saw this issue of "Hui Rich List" magazine one day.
"It's over, it's all over. My peaceful and harmonious campus life..."
Lu Yiming casually threw the "Hui Rich List" aside, his expression dejected, like a salted fish being exposed to the sun.
Li Yiwen picked up the magazine on the sofa and glanced at it. He couldn't help but sigh in amazement: "I heard that this foreigner named Hu Run is an accountant. I didn't expect that his professional ability is quite strong. He has investigated your assets clearly. In other words, he can't find the stocks you entrusted me to buy in the United States for the time being."
Seeing the gloating smile on Li Yiwen's face, Lu Yiming was furious: "Seeing me in trouble, you are still smiling so happily?"
Li Yiwen couldn't help but laugh twice more: "Your money doesn't come from unknown sources, why are you afraid of others finding out?"
Lu Yiming has invested in a total of 14 companies in China, spanning the fields of finance, entertainment, electronics, food, media magazines and the Internet, with a total valuation of approximately over 1.5 billion.
Among them, Tongxin Internet Cafe holds 89% of the shares, and the remaining 11% is divided between Li Yiwen and Li Quanwang. Future Capital holds 100%, Future Fund holds 73%, Minghua Entertainment holds 93%, Jingyi Real Estate holds 52%, Shijinji holds 36%, 3721 Network Company holds 30%, Mingyuan Technology holds 40%, and also owns all the shares of Dianguang Automobile, 5% of AsiaInfo, 50% of Alibaba, and 5% of Xiaolingtong.
Among these, many investments have not yet seen any returns, and Lu Yiming's investment assets in this area are currently negative.
Otherwise, a net worth of more than 4 billion would be unstoppable.
Although this information is not top secret, it is not easy for ordinary people to find it in a short period of time.
Even if he thought about it with his heels, Lu Yiming knew that someone must be behind his back. After all, Hu Run was just a small accountant. How could he have such great power to investigate his asset information so clearly?
In other words, Lu Yiming entrusted Li Yiwen to buy company stocks in the United States, but the other party didn't know about it, otherwise his personal assets would have "skyrocketed" by 500 million.
Because the Internet boom in the United States is still ongoing, the stocks that cost about 1 billion to buy have now appreciated to 1.5 billion, a 50% increase in just a few months. This shows how crazy and popular the Internet sector of Nasdaq is.
Lu Yiming said gloomily, "Do you know the consequences of publishing this list? Rich people are hated by others, especially those poor people who can't even afford to eat. But when they see this list, they see that everyone is so rich. What do you think they will think? Think about those officials. When they see this list, they will think, wow, there are so many rich people on it. Do you think they will come to extort money? What kind of rich list is this? It's more like a pig-killing list."
Seeing how terrifying Lu Yiming's words were, Li Yiwen was a little unconvinced: "Isn't the country now insisting on focusing on economic development? Could it be that someone dares to reverse history?"
As business grows, it is inevitable that it will become involved in politics.
However, Lu Yiming was very sensible about the fact that businessmen cannot interfere in politics, so he did not discuss this topic in depth with Li Yiwen. Instead, he said with emotion: "If one is upright , one has nothing to fear from his own shadow. But what if one is not upright?"
Li Yiwen was puzzled.
Lu Yiming looked at Li Yiwen with an obscure look and whispered, "The four major banks in the country are now technically bankrupt, and the non-performing loan rate of financial institutions is as high as more than 32%, nearly one-third. Where do you think all the money went? Without such a huge deficit, would there be so many wealthy people suddenly emerging like mushrooms after rain?"
Li Yiwen's hair stood on end and his back felt cold when he heard this. What Lu Yiming said was really too scary.
"Is everything you said true? That's impossible? I haven't seen any news reports about it."
Li Yiwen, who is an accountant by profession, naturally understands what "technical bankruptcy" means.
The so-called technical bankruptcy means that all the capital has been lost, but the company refuses to admit it, so it is called "technical".
As the financial cornerstone of a country, if a big bank collapses, it is no small matter, but a catastrophe as devastating as an earth-shattering catastrophe!
Lu Yiming pointed at Guo Shuxin, who ranked third on the Hurun Rich List. "Take this guy for example. He claimed that he would plant trees in the desert and turn it into fertile fields. He got a lot of loans because of that. Otherwise, how did he get his 10 billion? Oh, because of the Asian financial crisis, his assets have been cut in half to only 5 billion. I guess his funding chain has been broken. I'm afraid he has already reserved a bed in prison."
Li Yiwen was shocked after hearing this and asked Lu Yiming: "Could it be that many of the rich people on the Hurun Rich List have this problem?"
Lu Yiming smiled bitterly: "Why else is it called the Pig Killing List? What kind of business would an honest person do? Wouldn't it be better to go home and raise pigs?"
Li Yiwen now understood why Lu Yiming was unwilling to be on the list. When problems were found one by one among the people on the list, those who had no problems would probably be considered to have problems by the common people.
This is what they call "birds of a feather flock together"!
You say you have no problem, but who will believe you then?
Li Yiwen asked: "What should we do now?"
Lu Yiming spread his hands and said, "Just leave it alone. What else can I do?"
He’s already on the Pig Killing List. Now Lu Yiming wants to get off, but he has to do it.
