Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled

Antler Coffee invested another 500 million to establish directly operated stores.

This news was significant, mainly targeting the beverage market.

For this store opening, they abruptly abandoned the traditional coffee shop model.

Instead, they went straight into office buildings, focusing on delivery services.

It could be said that this was a disruptive innovation within the industry.

Mainly, it was an innovation in terms of cost.

After Tengying Entertainment’s stock price dropped by twenty billion, Fei Yangyang also fell out of the fifty billion bracket.

Compared to its initial public offering price, it had dropped a full 40%.

The decrease was nearly half.

Chen Pingsheng remained indifferent as March ended.

It also meant that it was time for listed companies to release their first-quarter financial reports.

In the first quarter, Tengying Entertainment released a movie, Detective Tang One, followed by three TV dramas that completed market cash-outs.

The first-quarter financial report showed a net profit of 5.2 billion.

As a listed company, financial reporting was mandatory for public disclosure.

Tengying Entertainment was no exception, and on the day the financial report was released, Tengying Entertainment’s stock price shook slightly before rising.

After that, it began to fall incessantly.

The market’s reaction was exactly as expected; even robust financial reports couldn’t regain the capital market’s trust.

To put it bluntly, this was no longer an issue of making money, but that the capital market believed it was challenging the rules and could completely collapse any day.

Chen Pingsheng really wanted to say, you’re thinking too much.

His head wasn’t made of iron, so why would he challenge those kinds of rules?

Inside the cross-shareholding of Tengying Group, no one knew how many bigwigs were involved.

After the money was in hand, the appropriate share must be distributed.

The reason was simple; he remained Tengying Entertainment’s largest shareholder personally, owning 60% of the shares.

He would certainly get the most when the money was distributed.

For listed company dividends, personal stockholding within a year incurred no personal income tax.

But holding stocks for over a year would attract 20% income tax.

For someone like Chen Pingsheng, he held 60% of Tengying Entertainment’s shares through Tenghui Capital.

That would be subject to a 25% corporate income tax.

From the 3.12 billion of dividends he received, he would pay 780 million in taxes.

There would be about 2.4 billion left after taxes.

After a complete cycle, it all went into his wife’s pocket again.

As for those shareholders who bought Tengying’s stock, they were allocated their share of dividends per share as standard.

Honestly speaking, domestic listed companies rarely share profits with shareholders.

Firstly, most companies believe that going public is purely for financing purposes.

Once financing is completed, they fundamentally ignore the demands of small investors, hence no dividend culture.

Secondly, there are shell companies that either cook their books or excessively package themselves for going public with no real ability to pay dividends.

The third and most common type is those who, after going public, blindly expand to cater to the preferences of domestic investors.

They’d rather waste money than distribute dividends to you.

Chen Pingsheng felt that if people bought his company’s stock, it was his duty to share the earned money with them.

It should be the amount it should be.

Key was, he also wouldn’t allow, his own brands to use the company’s earnings for blind expansion.

If you’re in the entertainment business, stick to entertainment.

If you’re in the restaurant industry, focus on cooking the dishes well and serving the customers who come to dine.

As for those selling milk tea, don’t start thinking about selling houses after the milk tea sells well.

In a word, it’s not allowed.

Once you cut off these companies’ cross-border routes, you’ll find that his listed companies all had the capacity to distribute dividends.

The operational condition was very good.

It was just a matter of retaining 30% as a risk fund.

Not only did Tengying Entertainment have money to share, but Bobo Milk Tea also had a net profit of 1.2 billion in the first quarter.

Fei Yangyang was the least, with just around ninety million.

They all made money, only the amount varied.

His wife was receiving around two billion a month in fixed dividends alone.

Come the dividend distribution for the three listed companies in the first quarter, that would be nearly five billion.

Truly, they were not lacking money at home.

He would start buying back shares as soon as the stock price fell a little more.

It was clearly not yet at rock bottom, so there was no rush.

By May 1, Shen Teng’s "West Red City’s Richest Man" would be released.

This movie had a return on investment of 700% at that time.

With just this one film, Tengying Entertainment could make over five billion.

The second quarter profits were clearly going to be significantly higher.

Before the movie was released, he was determined to buy back several billion worth of stock.

Come the second-quarter financial report, the stock price was likely to surge drastically.

Chen Pingsheng, filled with fantasies in his office, saw Bai Xin come looking for him and, spotting his upturned mouth, couldn’t help but ask, "Uncle, why are you smiling with squinted eyes?"

"You wouldn’t understand, I’m making money from the movies and the stock market now."

Suddenly, Chen Pingsheng thought that the stock price hitting rock bottom might not be such a bad thing after all.

If he could buy back tens of billions of Tengying Entertainment’s stock before the capital market’s trust was restored,

a two or threefold increase within two years would be nothing.

Trading his own company’s stocks was really something.

"Oh," Bai Xin thought for a while, not really understanding.

She came because last April, her younger sister Song Wu had a birthday,

and Tengying Entertainment invested ninety million in one of her TV dramas.

Yesterday, it broke even, earning a return of 1.8 billion.

All he needs now is for him to sign his name.

It’s just a small project, a quick glance and it’s done.

Besides, isn’t Bai Lu always filming the trainee competition?

It’s like she’s halfway to resting.

Chen Pingsheng picked out an ancient costume drama for her called "Zhou Sheng as Usual".

It’s a pretty good show, if he says it’s good that naturally means it’s good for making money.

The total investment is 130 million, and it can bring in a 350% return.

It really doesn’t take any effort to make money in the entertainment industry.

Once Bai Lu finishes this, she’ll basically be able to squeeze into the rank of A-list starlets.

She’s been at the top of the second tier till now.

Reaching the A-list means she’s truly grounded herself in the entertainment industry.

Bai Lu came out of his first trainee competition, making it to the A-list so quickly is a massive encouragement for the trainee competition.

If it weren’t for the backing of Tengying Entertainment, ordinary people, even if they ran themselves ragged, couldn’t touch the threshold of the A-list.

Tengying Entertainment alone boasts three A-list top stars, namely Zhao Liying, Yang Mi, and Liu Yifei.

Now Bai Lu is about to join the A-list as well.

Once this batch of trainees is over, they should be able to cultivate one or two more.

No doubt, the line-up is getting stronger and stronger.

Every day he receives no fewer than ten scripts of various sizes.

Bai Xin herself will first filter out the unreliable ones.

By unreliable, it means directors and production teams that have never made a profitable project. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Or those who have failed in two projects.

The entertainment industry is strange; if a director fails twice in a row, it’s highly likely that his next project will flop too.

Those that can make money tend to make money with most of their works.

Those that can’t, no matter how much money you give them, it’s a waste.

If he doesn’t screen some out, he can’t possibly finish looking at all these projects.

Of course, he can’t finish looking at them now either.

Some profitable projects will also slip through his fingers, but there’s nothing to regret, considering Golden Finger Grandpa can only look at one a day.

That’s already quite a sweet deal.

When Chen Pingsheng returns home, his wife Song Yanxi is again sticking her butt up in the air, poring over accounts in the room.

Every time money pours into her account, she sticks her butt up on the bed and grabs a calculator.

Then she meticulously plans her next investments using her tiny notebook.

Chen Pingsheng sneaks over for a look and discovers that she’s actually writing about buying property in Xiangjiang.

Enjoy new chapters from empire

After buying those 500-year property rights in Xiangjiang, the 70-year ones back on the mainland suddenly don’t seem so attractive anymore.

And well, it’s clear that real estate in Xiangjiang is more resilient.

Chen Pingsheng pats her, "Why do you always focus on property?"

Song Yanxi covers her bottom, perhaps out of habit, and she can’t be bothered to scold him anymore.

"If I don’t buy property with so much money, how can I rely solely on bank interest?"

"Forget it, you can go buy a headquarters building in Guangzhou. Most of Fei Yangyang’s stores are concentrated in Guangdong, and Tenghui Department Store and fresh produce have moved over there too. They need to buy a headquarters building there now."

Starting from last year, the investment Chen Pingsheng has made on headquarters buildings has already reached about five billion.

If you add storefronts, Tengchao Commercial Management’s total assets are already close to 17 billion.

It’s quite astonishing.

Song Yanxi sees his point, but the spare cash she has only totals about five billion, which is obviously not enough to buy a headquarters building in Guangzhou.

Chen Pingsheng tells her not to worry and to first buy two luxury homes for themselves in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

In the future, their family would definitely need to travel around.

Gao Hu spends most of his time in Guangdong, and he frequently visits as well.

It’s impossible not to have their own home there.

Song Yanxi thinks it makes sense. Core areas in super first-tier cities still hold their property values well.

Of course, she doesn’t need to consider these factors for a family home.

By the next day, she hurries off to fly to Guangzhou, along with two super-rich ladies from Water Cloud Space.

How rich? They buy homes by the block.

If you introduce them to just one unit, that’s an insult.

This time, Song Yanxi is off to pick a house for her own family, so naturally, she is very picky; she has to like it for herself.

Five billion, and she’ll only buy two.

Even in places like Guangzhou and Shenzhen, she could take her pick.

After choosing for a while, Song Yanxi finally settles on a property in Dayi Villa at the foot of Baiyun Mountain in Guangzhou.

A villa king over 3000 square meters with an exceptional design.

Priced at 180 million.

Chen Pingsheng would prefer her to buy something smaller to avoid hiring housekeepers.

Song Yanxi loves this one, so she doesn’t want to buy a smaller one.

Well, suit herself then.

Property is no longer an investment asset, the ones she speculatively bought in Capital City in the early years have been completely sold off.

Now it’s all just for their own family home.

She chose a foothill villa in Guangzhou, so naturally it’s a large flat in Shenzhen.

Song Yanxi picks a penthouse in Shenzhen Bay No. 1, the 980-square-meter kind.

She also casually picks up two Aston Martins from downstairs to park in her newly acquired parking spaces.

If you say that such homes are expensive, just across the river in Xiangjiang.

They spent a whole eight billion on a 480-square-meter villa in Galleon Peak Road without shared areas.

The price here is less than two billion.

For his wife, it doesn’t compare to expensive at all.

Just like those domestic home buyers, as long as the property value doesn’t drop but keeps rising, that’s good enough.

His wife had just divided a big sum; if she doesn’t run out and spend a few billion, she would feel out of sorts.

Once the money’s spent, she’ll head back to work to earn money in all earnestness.