In early December, Forbes China Rich List was officially released.
The paper version of this list still smells of ink in the printing factory.
The electronic version has been pushed to hundreds of millions of terminals around the world through Forbes Chinese Website's server.
The design of the list page is as simple as ever--
Black text on a white background, ranking, name, estimated wealth, main source of assets, each line is a name,
Behind every name is a piece of digitally compressed business history.
The top fourteen are names familiar to the public--
Internet giants, real estate tycoons, manufacturing leaders, everyone's wealth story has been written countless times by the media.
The mouse continued to slide down, and on the fifteenth line, the page seemed to pause for a moment.
Zhao Chen, 16 billion US Dollar, 23 years old.
Main asset sources: Times Pioneer Capital, Henglong Group.
This number is a more conservative middle value than the estimate range disclosed by Liu Mingyu in the previous chapter.
But even so, the number 16 billion US Dollar itself is enough to make everyone who sees the list stop what they are doing.
23 years old - All other people in the top 100 are over forty.
23 years old means that he has graduated from college soon;
16 billion US Dollar, which means that he made an average of more than 100 million people RMB every day in the past three years.
And deeper in this set of numbers, there is a mystery that makes all financial reporters crazy and fascinated:
His assets were not inherited, nor were they created by speculating on the concept of A-share and Snowball.
It's not about cashing out in one go after a super unicorn's IPO.
Rather, it is through a winding wealth path across the currency circle, US Stocks, Hong Kong Stocks,
And every transaction record is safely stored in the public database of Wall Street and SEC.
It can withstand repeated inspections with a magnifying glass from around the world.
The page continues to scroll down,
The 16th to 20th places are Li Wenwu from New Energy Vehicle Startups, as well as several senior entrepreneurs in the traditional manufacturing and real estate fields.
Their wealth estimates are concentrated in the range of 8 billion to 10 billion US Dollar.
The 16 billion US Dollar of Zhao Chen is nearly twice as high as the 16th place.
From fifteenth to fourteenth, the estimated wealth of Jingxi Qiangdong and NetEase Ding Sanshi is between 16 billion and 17 billion US Dollar,
The difference between the three people is only a few hundred million US Dollar--in other words,
Zhao Chen is only a few percentage points away from China being in the top ten of the rich list.
The news about the Forbes list first popped up on Bloomberg Terminal.
The title only has one line - "Zhao Chen: Forbes China Rich List No. 15, 23 years old, 16 billion US Dollar."
Reuters followed closely, using the ID photo of Zhao Chen at Henglong's media conference as the accompanying picture--
"The actual controller of Era Vanguard was listed on Forbes China Rich List for the first time with a net worth of 16 billion US Dollar,
Become Asia the youngest self-made Ten-Billion-US-Dollar rich man."
The CNBC anchor read this news twice during the midday broadcast.
The second time I spoke, my speech slowed down significantly, as if I was digesting the meaning behind the number.
After she finished reading, she was silent for two seconds in front of the camera, and then said something that was not on the teleprompter:
"23 years old, started from scratch.
We have been discussing how heavy Era Vanguard's position is on Tesla and Nvidia,
But I forgot to ask a question - how old is the founder of this fund?"
At the same time, domestic Financial Media responded faster than overseas.
First Finance, 21st Century Business Herald, Daily Economic News, and Securities Times pushed this message almost at the same time. The titles have different emphasis but the core information is exactly the same.
The WeChat public account "Wall Street News" immediately re-topped the popular article about Era Vanguard.
And added an update at the end of the article:
"Today, Forbes China Rich List was officially released, and Zhao Chen ranked 15th with a net worth of 16 billion US Dollar.
It has only been about 5 months since we first exposed the person behind Era Vanguard.
In the past five months, Zhao Chen's net assets have risen simultaneously due to the simultaneous rise in the stock prices of Tesla and Nvidia.
The range continues to climb from about 12 billion to 15 billion US Dollar to the official list of 16 billion US Dollar."
The discussion forums of Snowball and Futu were flooded almost at the same time.
Someone dug up Wuliangye last year's K-line Chart and wrote in the comment area:
"When Henglong Capital bought heavily on the day Wuliangye hit the limit, no one in the market noticed this operation.
Looking back now, it was not an accidental bargain hunting, but Zhao Chen's accurate judgment on the recovery of the Baijiu sector's prosperity.
This person never chases the rise, he only gets in when everyone else is running out."
Another user replied:
"His operating style in NASDAQ is exactly the same.
On the day when Tesla fell to 178 US Dollar, everyone in Wall Street was waiting for him to liquidate his position. He caught all the blows at that position.
This is exactly the same as his method of buying Wuliangye."
Zhengfa University's alumni group has completely lost their peace.
The last time Zhao Chen's identity was exposed, the group had already had a lot of comments, but that time it was just "he is the actual controller of Era Vanguard".
It is the reveal of an identity label.
And this time it is 16 billion US Dollar - a number that can directly replace the word "alumni" with "number 15 on the rich list".
Someone in the group found a photo of Zhao Chen participating in a moot court competition many years ago.
In the photo, he is wearing a slightly oversized suit and standing among his teammates.
The person who posted the photo included a short and somewhat awkward sentiment:
"While we were still discussing which law firm could offer an annual salary of 200,000 yuan, this guy could already buy the entire law firm building."
On the afternoon of the day when the list was released, Zhengfa University Law School was in the dean's office.
The dean read the line Zhao Chen on the Forbes page several times, took off his glasses and leaned on the back of his chair, remaining silent for a long time.
The scene of Zhao Chen's return to school speech a few days ago is still vivid in my mind--
He talked about his transformation from a lawyer to an investor at the moot court podium.
After the speech, the dean walked with him around the campus.
When passing by the lecture theater where Company Law took the case class, Zhao Chen paused and said, "The tables and chairs in this classroom have not been changed yet."
The dean thought at the time that he was just nostalgic for the past, but now he understands that he is not nostalgic for the past--
He really remembers every chair he sat on.
That young man is now Forbes China Rich List the 15th top investor in the world with a net worth of 16 billion US Dollar.
But when he returned to school, he was still the same person who could recognize his seat at a glance.
The dean pushed up his reading glasses, picked up the intercom and dialed the number of the director of the hospital office.
He paused for a moment into the phone and then said:
"As for the scholarship last time, Zhao Chen promised 5 million per year for ten consecutive years.
Please help me write it down in the memo - the name of this scholarship is just 'Zhao Chen Law Scholarship', and there is no need to add any modifiers."
He hung up the phone and looked back at the list on the computer screen. The camphor tree beside the playground outside the window was rustling in the afternoon wind.