October 12, Saturday, two o'clock in the afternoon.
Shan City Jiangbeizui, Henglong Group Headquarters Multi-Function Hall on the first floor.
There is still half an hour before the official start of the media conference, and the 200 seats are already occupied.
First Finance, Caijing Magazine, 21st Century Business Herald, Jiemian News, Securities Times,
Reporters China Business Journal, Daily Economic News, Xinhua Finance Channel, and CCTV Finance Channel occupied the middle positions in the first three rows.
Reporters Bloomberg Beijing Bureau and Reuters Shanghai Bureau are sitting on the right side of the aisle.
CNBC Asia-Pacific Bureau's camera team set up three machines in the last row.
The camera is facing the empty dark gray high chair on the rostrum and the huge LED screen behind it.
The aisles were crowded with a few self-media people who had not grabbed a seat.
They sat on the floor, put their laptops on their knees, and the live broadcast interface lit up on their mobile screens.
Liu Mingyu stood at the entrance of the Multi-Function Hall, his suit buttoned up meticulously.
In his hand, he held a finalized flow chart and a floor plan of the venue with the location of each device interface marked.
He had double-checked it three times before starting--
Signal switching on the LED large screen, channel testing in the simultaneous interpretation room, uplink bandwidth for live streaming, and the spare wired microphone on the rostrum.
He even arranged for the property management company to add two emergency power generation vehicles outside the venue.
Just in case anything unexpected happens to Jiangbeizui's power grid today when hundreds of devices and live broadcast signals are full at the same time.
At 2:20, Zhao Chen walked in from the side door.
Su Wantang led the way and blocked several reporters who tried to ask questions in the passage.
Zhao Chen was wearing a dark gray suit, no tie, and one button on the collar of his shirt was loose.
He walked onto the stage and sat on the dark gray high chair,
I adjusted the angle of the wired microphone in front of me.
Then he raised his head and slowly scanned the more than two hundred faces in the audience.
Liu Mingyu walked to the podium on the side of the rostrum and tapped the microphone lightly with his finger.
The noise in the venue quickly dropped.
"Dear guests, thank you all for attending the Henglong Group media meeting.
There will be no preset topics or question outlines for today's meeting.
Mr. Zhao Chen will make an opening speech first and then answer your questions.
There are reporter friends Bloomberg and Reuters present at the scene, and we will provide English translation simultaneously.
Now Mr. Zhao Chen please speak."
He bowed slightly and retreated into the shadows on the side of the rostrum, leaving the entire stage to Zhao Chen alone.
Zhao Chen nodded towards Liu Mingyu, then turned back to the audience.
The wired microphone faithfully transmitted every subtle change in his voice to the sound system, low and clear.
"Good afternoon everyone. My name is Zhao Chen.
This is the first time I have stood in front of the domestic media since my identity was made public.
In the past nearly a year, there have been too many reports about Era Vanguard, Henglong, and myself.
Some are facts, some are guesses, and some are misunderstandings.
I'm sitting here today not to correct every report - I don't have the time, nor the need.
But I can answer any questions that anyone here has.
Regarding the reasons why I violated my promise of 'not reducing my holdings or pledging',
Regarding the asset source and compliance status of Era Vanguard,
Regarding the future strategic direction of Henglong,
Regarding my relationship with Elon Musk,
Regarding my judgment on Bitcoin,
About my age and wealth - anything you want to ask, you can ask today.
I don't need a script, I don't need a script, and I don't intend to leave without answering any questions."
He pushed the microphone slightly forward and glanced from the first row to the last row.
"Then, we can begin."
As soon as he finished speaking, hands were raised in the audience.
Liu Mingyu pointed at a female reporter sitting in the front row on the side stage.
First Finance's Lin Wei stood up and took the wireless microphone handed over by the staff.
"Zhao Zong, thank you for taking the question.
My question is--
You said at the New York press conference that the reason why you violated your promise of 'not reducing or pledging' is,
It's because you need to raise enough ammunition in the shortest time to defend Era Vanguard's Liquidation Threshold.
I want to know, at the moment you made the decision to pledge Henglong shares,
Have you ever thought about what you would do if you lose?"
Zhao Chen pulled the microphone closer to him and was silent for a few seconds.
Then he spoke, his voice was not high but every word was firmly pressed on every speaker in the venue.
"I thought about it.
If Era Vanguard was penetrated on Pledged Shares on Tesla in May,
16.6 million shares of Tesla will be sold intensively by four investment banks in Secondary Market.
The stock price of Tesla will instantly Too Big to Fail, and the position of Era Vanguard on Nvidia will also be eaten up due to the break of Capital Chain.
At that time, the stock price of Henglong will not be preserved, and the investors' money will also be wiped out."
He paused and his eyes met Lin Wei,
"I use the price of breaking a promise to plug another bigger hole.
This is not a multiple-choice question, this is a cost question.
I chose the one with a higher cost, because that price can protect the interests of more people.
I did the right thing. But I broke my promise.
So I will continue to pay the price - compensating Listed Company Two Hundred Million Hong Kong Dollar every year until the compensation period expires."
Lin Wei quickly recorded it on his notebook without asking any further questions.
The next person to stand up was reporter Bloomberg Beijing Bureau.
He asked questions in English, and the translation from the simultaneous interpretation room came out of the headphones almost simultaneously.
"Mr. Zhao, Bloomberg did a special program about you before,
The title is "Wall Street The youngest Billion-Dollar Fund Manager in the century-old history".
My question is - what do you think of this title?"
Zhao Chen tilted his head slightly, with a very faint arc at the corner of his mouth.
"I watched that program. A veteran fund manager said something in the program--
Zhao Chen is not the smartest, the most experienced, or the one with the largest amount of funds.
But he did one thing right - he didn't waver in the most difficult times.
This sentence deserves to be remembered more than the title itself.
The numbers are dynamic, I only care about the long-term value of Henglong and Era Vanguard.
The title was given by others, I don't need to respond."
Questions were thrown one after another, and the pace was faster than any quarterly performance briefing.
A reporter asked him his evaluation of Elon Musk, and he said -
"Elon Musk does not need my evaluation.
He is the most extreme engineer of this era and my most trusted partner.
The tacit understanding between us is simple - he builds the car and I hold the shares.
I will not interfere with any of his decisions, and he will not interfere with mine."
A reporter asked him what he thought of the future of Bitcoin, and he said -
"My opinion on it is not important. What is important is that it is the most important thing in my life First Pot of Gold,
It is also the basis for all my future investments.
As for whether it will rise in the future, that's not my biggest concern right now."
A reporter asked him what he thought of the hedge funds that shorted Tesla in May and were eventually forced to liquidate their positions by Times Vanguard. He was silent for a few seconds, and then said -
"Short Selling itself is not right or wrong. They Short Selling Tesla because they believe there is something wrong with Tesla's Fundamentals.
I hold on to Tesla because I believe New Energy is a track with high enough certainty."
The last question came from a young reporter sitting at the edge of the aisle.
She looked less than thirty years old, and she was holding a voice recorder in her hand instead of a notebook.
Her voice was a little tight when she stood up, but the question was very direct -
"Zhao Zong, you are only in your twenties this year.
You are already the youngest self-made Ten-Billion-US-Dollar-level rich man in the world.
What do you think wealth means to you?"
Zhao Chen leaned on the back of the chair and moved his gaze from the young face to the window Two Rivers Confluence--
Yangtze River and Jialing River meet in the October sunshine,
The two water streams, muddy yellow and green, flowed side by side for a long time before finally merging into one.
He withdrew his gaze and looked at the young reporter again.
"Let me afford to lose.
It allows me to make every decision without thinking about retreat.
Allow me to remain silent about those doubts and prejudices until the facts speak for me.
Allow me to continue sitting in front of you and answer your question."
He looked into her eyes,
"Let me continue to do what I want to do, not what others want me to do."