The day after the Forbes list was released, the downstairs of the Henglong Group Chongqing headquarters was surrounded by media.
Liu Mingyu is already prepared.
He notified the property management company the night before to deploy additional manpower.
Set the elevator leading to the top floor Chairman's Office to swipe the card.
Security guards were also arranged to guard the entrance to the underground garage to ensure that Zhao Chen would not be stuck in the car when he went to work.
He practiced these measures once during Zhao Chen's first media meeting in September.
Now it is easy to do it.
The only difference is that this time he did not set up a temporary media reception area at Cafe.
No interview passes were issued to any media.
Zhao Chen's instructions are clear:
No interviews will be accepted and no press conference will be held.
The reporters were unwilling to give in.
Starting at eight o'clock in the morning, at least six cameras were set up in the lobby on the first floor of Henglong Headquarters, and the backlights reflected the stone floor of Dali.
More than two dozen reporters crowded outside the makeshift Warning Line,
Everyone has at least three drafts of questions from different angles in their cell phone memos -
About the ranking of 16 billion US Dollar, about the feeling of being in the top fifteen of Forbes at the age of 23,
Regarding Era Vanguard's next investment direction, and Henglong's asset structure transformation.
Someone even brought a printout of K-line Chart when Era Vanguard encountered Short Selling at US Stocks in March this year.
Trying to do an in-depth report on the scene with before and after comparison.
But Zhao Chen was not in front of them, and the K-line Chart could only be quietly folded back into the document bag.
Zhao Chen was already sitting in the office on the top floor, with Su Wantang's freshly soaked Pu'er in front of him.
When Chen Xi opened the door and came in, he was holding a media briefing compiled by Liu Mingyu.
The above summarizes the reporting angles of the Forbes list from the national mainstream Financial Media this morning--
"The youngest self-made billionaire" "From Short Selling to Forbes ranked 15th"
"Era Vanguard The wealth password of the person behind the scenes"--
The titles are similar, and the core information is all taken from the list data officially released by Forbes yesterday.
Chen Xi put the briefing on the table and asked Zhao Chen if he needed Liu Mingyu to issue an official statement in the name of the group to give a unified response.
This will at least allow the media to have an official caliber for their reports, instead of relying entirely on guesswork and splicing.
Zhao Chen picked up the tea cup and took a sip.
"The statement can be issued. The core is just one sentence--
The numbers are dynamic, I only care about the long-term value of Henglong and Era Vanguard.
The ranking on the list doesn't mean anything."
When he said this, his tone was exactly the same as when he signed the reply letter Hong Kong Stock Exchange and wrote the SEC inquiry reply.
Not deliberately low-key, nor arrogant.
For him, wealth has never been a tool to show off, but a yardstick to measure risks and opportunities.
He may not read the list, but he must read every piece of news on Bloomberg Terminal that affects his position;
He may not care about the ranking, but he cannot care about whether Era Vanguard's position on Nvidia is safe or not.
Whether the asset structure of Henglong is healthy, and whether the listing pace of Bubble Mary and Green Energy Technology can be advanced on time.
Chen Xi wrote this sentence down in her notebook and was about to get up to make arrangements for the announcement when Zhao Chen stopped her.
"There is one more sentence, add it too.
I will never respond to this list individually in any public forum in the future.
No matter it is Forbes, Bloomberg or Hurun, the same statement will only be sent once."
This statement was released simultaneously through the Henglong Group official WeChat public account and Hong Kong Stock Exchange HKEXnews platform half an hour later.
The full text is less than a hundred words, and it would only be enough to fill an inconspicuous sidebar on the front page of any Financial Media store.
But no media put it on the sidebar today.
The headline of First Finance took that sentence directly from the statement--
"Zhao Chen responded to a net worth of 16 billion: Ranking does not mean anything, I only care about long-term value."
21st Century Business Herald added a subtitle under the same title--
"Henglong Group officially issued a statement, and Zhao Chen stated that it would not make any further response to any wealth list."
The editor of Wall Street News posted a screenshot of the full statement at the front of the article, along with a brief comment:
"A 23-year-old Ten-Billion-US-Dollar rich man's only response after Forbes released the list was 'it doesn't mean anything'.
This may be the most concise and calmest speech on the list in the history of China Rich List."
The media uproar did not subside with this statement--
On the contrary, the statement itself has become a new hot topic.
Weibo Hot Search List on,
The entry "Zhao Chen responds to Forbes ranking" rushed to the top five one hour after the statement was released, and the comment area was roughly divided into two groups:
One group of people thinks that Zhao Chen is "really calm" and that being able to say "it doesn't mean anything" at the age of 23 is really not just an act;
The other group thinks that he is just "pretending", and someone who dares to fight against Wall Street and Short Sellers,
How could the person who transformed Henglong from a second-tier real estate company into a billion-level investment platform really not care about rankings?
The two factions were quarreling fiercely, but Zhao Chen himself never logged into his social media account from the beginning to the end.
In the evening, reporters outside Henglong Group downstairs Warning Line put away their tripods one after another.
The temporary power strips of Cafe were taken back to the warehouse one by one by the property management company.
Liu Mingyu stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass door in the lobby on the first floor,
Watching the last satellite TV interview car slowly drive out of the ramp,
Behind him, there were only a few vague wheel tracks of broadcast equipment on the Dali stone ground.
He lowered his head and wrote in the memo on his mobile phone:
"From now on, the unified response to media visits will be based on the official statement of the group, and no further interviews will be arranged."
After pressing the save button, he raised his head and looked at the empty square outside the revolving door.
Suddenly I remembered something the professor said when I was reading Company Law many years ago -
"Every line of information released by the company may become the basis for investment decisions."
And his boss used one line of words today to block out all unnecessary noise for the entire Henglong System.
When night fell over Jiangbeizui, the Long Table that had been moved out of the big Meeting Room had been pushed back to its original position.
Only the low hum of the heater air conditioner still filled the air evenly.
Su Wantang placed the teapot on the coffee table and sat down opposite Zhao Chen.
The lights of Two Rivers Confluence outside the window spread out into a flowing sea of light in the night, and the steel cables of Chaotianmen Bridge were outlined by the lights in two beautiful arcs.
She looked down at the pale golden ripples Tea Soup floating in the cup and said:
"At the media meeting after you came back from United States last time, someone asked you a similar question--
'How does it feel to have this amount of wealth at the age of 23'.
What you said at the time was that it gave you more responsibility."
Zhao Chen was silent for a long time while holding the tea cup. There was a Cruise Ship on the river outside the window slowly passing by.
The lights on the boat were reflected on the water, broken and gathered together, gathered together and broken again.
Then he put down the teacup.
"Wealth has never been my goal, it is just a result of making the right judgment at the right time.
I never make any decisions for the sake of wealth--
Whether this company and this track is worth my time is the basis for decision-making.
As for where Forbes ranks me, that is someone else's ledger, not mine."
He raised his head and looked at Su Wantang,
"What I lost was the right to be treated as an ordinary person,
The right not to be on edge all the time, the right to walk down the street without being recognized - these are all.
But from the moment Era Vanguard's name appears on Nvidia Shareholder Register, these rights are destined to be irretrievable.
I made my own choices, so I have nothing to complain about."
Su Wantang didn't say anything more, picked up the teapot and refilled his empty cup.