After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future

"Let's talk about it when the time comes,"

Wang Xiaocong was distracted, clearly not ready to give up.

His Banana Plan was to build the Oriental Disney—with live streams, esports, variety shows, drama series, video playback, and self-media creation. He wanted it all, without exception.

Lu Liang sighed and didn't try to persuade him further. Little Wang's ambition was enormous, but whether his abilities matched his ambition was another matter.

Anyway, if things went south, he was ready to bail at any moment.

Lu Liang summoned Tang Caide, "Mr. Tang, take them to sign the contract. And you'll be in charge of the production finance audit too."

Tang Caide nodded. She was familiar with the process, having experienced as a movie producer and now as a web series producer, always with a firm grip on the financial reins.

As she reached the door, she suddenly stopped, "Mr. Lu, Mr. Yang has informed us that Xia Luo has wrapped up filming and is now in post-production, planning to release during the National Day holiday. He's asking if we have any cinema chains to recommend."

Lu Liang smiled warmly, turning his gaze to Little Wang. A 20% stake can't be taken for free, and even though Xia Luo was invested in by Tianxing Capital and not related to Little Wang, its connection to him was good enough.

Wang Xiaocong rolled his eyes irritably, "Wanda Cinema is managed by my mom. I'll talk to her later."

"Please thank President Lin for me," Lu Liang replied with a smile at the corner of his mouth.

It was rumored that the Lin Family had a very formidable daughter; otherwise, Little Wang would not be spoiled to the heavens.

After seeing off Little Wang, before returning to his office, Lu Liang instructed Wen Chao and Chen Jinchun, "During this period, help me keep an eye on the company's emails, focusing on startup proposals for short videos. Xiao Chen, you'll be in charge of categorizing them, Little Wen, you're responsible for reviewing."

Kuai Shou and Byte aren't making it, but he still wasn't satisfied. If one company wasn't enough, he would invest in ten, piling up the volume until he found the right one.

After all, even someone with an eye for talent like Shen Peng didn't always hit the mark. Whether it was Redwood or Golden Sand River, success came from bulk investments – first raising a king of poison, then giving it targeted nurturing.

At four in the afternoon, the hotel's shuttle bus took all the company's staff to the Peace Hotel on the Bund across the river.

"Today, eat well, drink well, have fun, and no business talk."

Even though the number of people was not large, Lu Liang still booked a small banquet hall that could accommodate fifty people and set up five tables.

After dinner, they went out to sing, and in the end, the hotel driver ensured everyone was safely delivered to their doorsteps.

Spending just under one hundred thousand for the night seemed well worth it.

At least now the new and old employees were getting along much better.

Three days flew by in a blink.

Lu Liang had used a total of 24 trading accounts, investing 550 million yuan in building positions on 11 stocks.

BYD held the most chips, reaching 86 million. Luckily, he had bought in small quantities over many days, and the stock's high market value meant that it didn't cause market fluctuations.

Next was LeTV, holding 38 million chips. Although the company's performance was poor and it'd been losing money for years, Old Jia was quite a bullshitter.

The constructed ecosystem for vehicular networking had fooled countless investors, boasting an abundance of star shareholders and becoming a major hype.

Initially abandoned by Lu Liang, upon further observation, it showed signs of perhaps becoming the second dragon of the new energy sector, worthy of increased investment.

On September 5th, a Sunday.

Li Bing called Lu Liang, and the two arranged to meet for an in-depth discussion on the new energy industry.

Lu Liang arrived as planned. Li Bing had dark circles under his eyes, his face filled with excitement, "Mr. Lu, a big trend is coming."

"What big trend?" Lu Liang had a vague guess but didn't show it, probably referring to the reason for the new energy sector's explosive growth.

"As the saying goes, a good wind relies on strength to send one soaring to the heavens. I've heard from a friend that the new energy trend is about to pick up."

Li Bing gave a secretive smile, suddenly teasing. Lu Liang looked unimpressed, "Mr. Li, is it fun to keep people in suspense?"

"Mr. Lu, don't get me wrong, I'm not deliberately keeping you in suspense; I'm thinking about how to explain it to you so you'll understand."

"Just speak, I'll ask if I don't understand."

"Have you heard about carbon credits?"

Li Bing explained, "In the United States, including California among 14 states, every car manufacturer is required to sell a certain proportion of 'zero emission vehicles' as per state regulations."

"This includes, but is not limited to, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles. Those who don't sell new energy vehicles, or fail to sell enough units, face penalties: paying fines, sales restrictions, or even losing the right to sell cars."

"The carbon credit system is led by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and was proposed in California in 1990, with the goal of reducing motor vehicle emissions..."

As Li Bing talked, his excitement grew; before he could reveal the conclusion, Lu Liang quietly interjected, "Is it that our country's carbon credit policy is also about to be implemented?"

Li Bing suddenly fell silent, as if choking on a lump of blood, his eyes full of reproach, "Mr. Lu, do you realize how much damage your behavior can cause to a storyteller?"

Although he also knew that with Lu Liang's intelligence, after hearing so much, he would definitely guess the outcome. But as the narrator, what he most enjoyed was the listener's gasp of surprise when they learned the result. Lu Liang had directly deprived him of that satisfaction, which was an extremely impolite act.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Li, the news was so shocking that I got excited and couldn't help myself," Lu Liang apologized with a forced smile.

Li Bing asked in a deep voice, "Then why do I not see surprise on your face?"

"Perhaps I'm more reserved," Lu Liang said with a light laugh.

As the 18th drew closer day by day, the new energy sector's market trend was slow to take off. He also constantly investigated what kind of good news could lead to a collective surge in the entire sector. China was really lucky; ideologies could feel their way across the river by touching bears, and economic trends could do so by touching hawks. Earlier years of e-commerce and group buying could all find their origins in the United States, which is why investors dared to follow one after another.

Lu Liang naturally had heard of America's carbon credit policy and had a deep understanding of it. He knew that the probability of China implementing it was very high, just with some localized modifications. So he wasn't too surprised.

"How exactly will it be implemented?" Lu Liang was curious.

"How would I have that kind of ability to know?" Li Bing rolled his eyes and then took malicious pleasure, "But it seems that the good days for gasoline vehicles may be coming to an end."

"That's not necessarily the case. At most they'll start to decline, and there might even be a few rebounds." Lu Liang mercilessly punctured Li Bing's illusions; upgrading such a huge industrial chain was not so simple. It could take five years, ten years, fifteen years, or even longer.

That was also why Li Bing had come to him. Building cars wasn't like building bicycles. Bicycle parts were simple; if you found a medium to large supplier, you could take care of everything. But it wasn't possible with cars; thousands of parts were involved, and you had to consider performance, energy, safety, and other aspects.

Take LeEco's Old Jia and his SEE Plan, which was proposed at the beginning of last year, and even secured several billion in funding. But so far, there's only a few pages of a PPT, and after a year and a half, not even a concept car, with claims it would take another two years to emerge. Car manufacturing is an extremely lengthy project and also requires continuous financial support.

A couple of venture capital firms were not enough; maybe more than a dozen or dozens would be needed to exert effort together. Li Bing had a fortune of only eighteen or so billion, most of which was in Yiche's equity. The funds he could use were probably even less than Lu Liang's, and he could not afford to do it alone, so he had to pull strings everywhere.

Like his NIO, established for several months with only a name and sponsorship of several matches.

"Mr. Lu, what are your thoughts?" Li Bing showed an embarrassed yet courteous smile. The hole for NIO cars was too big; he had grown accustomed to making big promises. Not only to feed investors but also himself; he was afraid he would not have the resolve to persist until the end.

After a long contemplation, Lu Liang gave his answer: "There is great potential for new energy vehicles." He asked, "Mr. Li, what are your plans for NIO?"

Li Bing was delighted and quickly said, "We plan to first collaborate with Jianghuai Group and use their factory for production, then release NIO's first concept car, with a goal of mass production in two years."

"If you collaborate with Jianghuai Group but the scale is too small, they probably won't bother with you," Lu Liang said.

"We have set up a one hundred billion strategic plan," Li Bing observed Lu Liang's reaction quietly.

Fortunately, Lu Liang's expression did not change, not intimidated by the enormous scale of one hundred billion. He hurriedly added, "The one hundred billion strategic plan is split over three years into twelve phases, with Jianghuai Group also contributing 4.9 billion for a 49% stake."

"Mr. Li, stop beating around the bush. How much is needed for the first phase, and how much funding is still lacking? Just tell me," Lu Liang could not help but smile.

"The Series A funding is one hundred million dollars. We currently have support from multiple parties including Tencent, JD, Gaoling, Xiaomi, and others," Li Bing talked at length before finally revealing the funding gap for Series A, which was still twenty million US dollars.