Chapter 189 Getting Ready for Retirement

Time quietly slipped into early June of 2008.

Headed by Jiang Yu and spearheaded by Sweet Fish Entertainment, a group of singers and actors were gathered to hold two fundraising performances in Hong Kong and Pengcheng.

The events went smoothly. When Jiang Yu returned home, she said to Su Yehao with satisfaction:

"Now you've seen my capabilities, right? We raised a total of more than 160 million RMB. I've decided to round it up and donate 200 million. We'll also make certificates for the guests who participated, so they feel a sense of accomplishment and don't think our company stole the show."

Su Yehao, while eating mangoes, said, "You've been working too hard lately. Take a break. Nangong is busy taking care of the baby, like a little milk cow, hoarding a freezer full of milk, perfect for you to replenish."

"Eww~ I'm not you. Keep it for yourself," Jiang Yu said with a disgusted tone, adding, "I'm planning to have another baby too. You're not allowed to smoke cigars, drink, or stay up late, got it? Go see her son first, you can entertain yourself."

Su Yehao was speechless. Too many children could also be a headache, even with a nanny to help, it still took a lot of time and energy.

But there was no way around it.

He chose to be a fish pond owner; this was the normal result.

Zhao Yi Meng was already five months pregnant, and it was another son, which he heard made her parents extremely happy.

Accompanying Jiang Yu upstairs, after visiting the sleeping baby, Su Yehao went to the study and turned on the computer.

The Olympic promotional song "Welcome to Si Jiu Cheng" (Four Nine City) that he recorded had been widely circulated since April this year. As the Olympics approached day by day, the Internet was flooded with related news.

This was also good.

At least it could divert attention. The global economic environment had been poor since the beginning of the year, and the mainland stock market was in constant decline. People needed some entertainment to boost their spirits.

Su Yehao had already started buying the dip, and also helped 5S Asset Management allocate a lot of quality assets, supporting a number of small and medium-sized enterprises in the form of private equity and venture capital investments.

Recently, he was personally overseeing two main projects.

One was increasing short positions in the U.S. financial industry, and the other was negotiating with Standard Chartered Bank for an acquisition.

As one of the best-performing British banks in Asia, Standard Chartered Bank was not small in scale. Now they were just maintaining communication without any real commitment, not what Su Yehao considered the best time to make a move.

This bank had been expanding rapidly in recent years, successively acquiring the banking business of American Express Bank (excluding the credit card division), as well as shares in Asian Commercial Bank and other institutions. Its financial situation wasn't great, which was why Su Yehao chose to target it.

When the financial crisis hit, he might be able to acquire Standard Chartered Bank at half price. What he needed to do now was wait for Standard Chartered to actively seek his help.

As for shorting the U.S. banking industry, Zheng Yongwen and his team had been busy for more than half a year, earning Su Yehao more than a billion U.S. dollars, but only slightly weakening investors' confidence.

However, the market was becoming increasingly tense. With the combined effects of inflation, the subprime mortgage crisis, and economic downturn, the possibility of a financial crisis was rising.

Using the funds provided by Su Yehao, Zheng Yongwen had been building short positions in U.S. stock index futures in a diversified manner, totaling about ten billion U.S. dollars. He also heavily shorted Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, and other higher-risk institutions, frequently speaking negatively to undermine market confidence.

Competing with the Federal Reserve required a careful approach to avoid attracting unwanted attention.

Helping Su Yehao reap billions of dollars in just six months during market volatility was already considered an overachievement by Zheng Yongwen and Feng Tiencai.

Whether they could seize the right opportunity to deliver a fatal blow when the market was at its most strained depended not only on ability but also on a bit of luck. In any case, many multinational hedge funds, especially the big players in the short-selling camp, had connected with Zheng Yongwen and maintained consistency in their harvesting actions.

In the middle of 2008, the strength of the short-selling camp was growing stronger. Zheng Yongwen's team had been closely watched by Wall Street traders, becoming a force to be reckoned with.

In addition to that.

Su Yehao had actually been quite idle since the beginning of the year. He had too many capable people under him, whose grasp of the situation was often more accurate than his own, providing many valuable suggestions.

Su Yehao, who was almost a mascot, only needed to approve documents and sign them.

Although Su Yehao hadn't really thought about retiring yet, he had to enter a semi-retired state. His commercial empire was powerful, and many cash-draining ventures had become enviable cash cows, no longer requiring him to save them.

Because the iPhone 1 sold so well, and the iPhone 2 was about to be released, coupled with the benefits of large-scale commercial 3G construction, the total value of Apple Smart Company had soared to 50 billion U.S. dollars in just one year.

A massive amount of capital was continuously flowing to Su Yehao, who was already not short of money.

…

At this moment.

Sitting at his walnut desk.

After browsing through the emails in his inbox, Su Yehao suddenly missed the time when many companies were first established, when Boss Ma, Chu Jun, Larry Page, and others would frequently seek his opinion.

Nowadays, Su Yehao felt that he had become some kind of spiritual symbol for his subordinates, a mascot as it were, and it was difficult to regain the passion he had in the early years of doing business.

It was the same in business and in life.

He used to be thrilled to buy a Gulfstream small private jet, but recently, getting an Airbus A380… it seemed like nothing much, just spending a few days' salary.

While he was absentmindedly browsing the news, Boss Ma, who had returned to Lin'an to start his own business, happened to send an email, briefly introducing the recent performance of the group buying website "Tao Tao Le."

Previously, when Boss Ma chose to leave and strike out on his own, Su Yehao provided him with some funding, accounting for about 30% of the shares.

With the end of the Series A financing, probably worried about being effectively controlled by Koko Ventures, he only introduced a few new investors from outside, resulting in Su Yehao's shareholding being diluted, reduced to 22%.

His eyes were on the spreadsheet, but his mind was wandering.

Su Yehao began to plan that after his thirtieth birthday next month, and after watching the Si Jiu Cheng (Four Nine City) Olympics, he would take a yacht and travel around the world.

It had been a few years since he got the yacht, and he had only been to Australia at most.

In addition.

The risk control consultant had suggested that Su Yehao choose to resign from all positions to avoid being controlled by certain forces for official reasons.

Historically, Toshiba executives had been detained and interrogated by the Americans, and were eventually convicted on some pretext. Finally, due to the ban on Toshiba's U.S. business, the Japanese giant plummeted.

Su Yehao felt that if he didn't travel now, he might not be able to travel around the world in the future, as his range of movement would be restricted due to his strength.

The United States was currently mired in an economic recession, and probably wouldn't dare to act rashly for the time being.

However, to be on the safe side, it was best to avoid the sphere of influence of the United States and its staunch allies, which would be more stable…