Shen Xingang thought that he could rest easy after Hu Ling's death, but in reality, their situation was worse than before Hu Ling died.
The pressure from online public opinion is growing stronger with each wave, and it seems that the public is venting all their grievances on them, with the stock market reacting the fastest.
The stock prices of the listed companies owned by the Donghai City Chamber of Commerce have begun another round of decline.
At first, they mistakenly thought that this was just some resentment from shareholders, and that they could manage by allocating a few rounds of funds to support the company for a few days. Although there were losses, they felt that it was within a controllable range.
But a subsequent official document completely broke down their defenses.
According to the trade regulations between Xia Kingdom and the United States Alliance, goods purchased by the United States Alliance from Xia Kingdom must be produced in accordance with strict regulations, the specific regulations of which are as follows…
This policy will be piloted in Donghai City, and all enterprises involved in import and export activities must strictly comply with the requirements.
This official document has been issued.
The business districts of Donghai City were in an uproar.
If the above requirements are followed, 90% of their companies will not meet the standards, which means that their previously exported goods will have to be returned, and it will be even more difficult for them to cooperate with the US alliance in the future.
Faced with this policy, the people in the Donghai City business district were as anxious as ants on a hot pan, because the policy came too suddenly, and they had not received any prior notice.
However, not all businesses in Donghai City are suffering; the businesses in the Linglong Chamber of Commerce are doing quite well.
On the same day the policy was announced, the Linglong Chamber of Commerce signed a series of cooperation agreements with the United States Alliance.
They had completed all the standards long before the policy was announced, including but not limited to increasing wages, improving benefits, reducing working hours, and so on.
It was as if they had known this policy would come about all along; all the standards were met in accordance with the policy.
As a result, their stock prices soared to the sky while plummeted to the ground. Apart from companies like the Linglong Chamber of Commerce, almost all listed companies in Donghai City hit their daily limit down.
Moreover, their decline lasted for a whole week.
The stock price has plummeted.
Many companies in Donghai City couldn't hold on any longer, including Shengli Group, the leading listed company in Donghai. Import and export trade accounted for 50% of their business. This policy was like cutting them in half, leaving them unable to breathe.
To make matters worse, due to the precipitous drop in orders, many companies under the Shengli Group are facing cash flow problems, and their bank loans have also reached their expiration dates. Without new orders, they are unable to obtain bank loans.
Shen Xingang personally called the presidents of major banks, but after a long time of communication, he still couldn't reach an agreement.
no way.
Faced with immense pressure, Shen Xingang had no choice but to cut his losses and survive. He personally dismantled many of his family's businesses and even sold some valuable assets to obtain sufficient cash.
...
Hu Ling's room in Chen Zhe's apartment.
Hu Ling, who is "dead," seems to have completely let go of herself. She doesn't need to go to work or go out, and stays in her apartment all day long.
So she doesn't wear makeup, and her clothes are very casual; she just wears the same few loungewear pieces all the time.
She wore thick glasses and her hair was messy.
Sitting in my office chair, my eyes are glued to the computer screen.
12 o'clock at night.
Chen Zhe brought in coffee, and she remained in the same position.
Chen Zhe placed the coffee aside.
Hu Ling acted as if she hadn't seen it and stuck the half-smoked cigarette butt into the hole.
Chen Zhe exclaimed in surprise.
"Sister Hu, this is coffee to help you stay alert."
"Huh? Oh, I didn't notice."
Hu Ling responded and then continued staring at the computer.
After a successful transaction, she stretched and yawned with a sigh of relief.
"Done!"
Chen Zhe looked at the computer screen, which displayed information about assets being sold off by Victory Group and other companies.
"Sister Hu, their company is in such a bad situation now, won't you run into problems if you buy their assets?"
"Hehe, what problems could there be? I set up a new company, then injected all their high-quality assets into it, and then used a listed company of the Linglong Chamber of Commerce to control this new company. This is entirely beneficial to us."
"Sister Hu, did you plan this all along?"
"Otherwise what? What do you think I did all those things—appearing on TV, giving speeches, and improving welfare? What did I do all that for?"
"Forehead……"
Chen Zhe gave an awkward smile.
"I thought you genuinely wanted to improve their welfare..."
Hu Ling stared at Chen Zhe for several seconds, as if looking at an innocent child, and then burst into laughter.
"Chen Zhe, you must remember that I am a businessman. Only profit can drive me. I will not do anything without profit. This is true not only for me, but for businessmen all over the world. I advise you to put away this naive idea, or you will suffer a terrible death in the future."
Chen Zhe wasn't as cold-blooded as he seemed.
"Sister Hu, I think there are still some good people. For example, this policy, although it has harmed the interests of some companies, is still good for the vast majority of workers. It means that some people have seen the difficulties faced by workers and want to help them..."
"Hehe, are you talking about the US alliance?"
Hu Ling asked with a smile.
Chen Zhe nodded; "They seem a bit more humane."
Hu Ling couldn't help but chuckle.
"Haha, I thought you'd learned your lesson, but I didn't expect you to still be so adorably naive. But I can't blame you; there are some things you can't see, and if you can't see them, you can't imagine them. Let me explain it to you like this: the reason they introduced this policy is because they want to protect their domestic industries and increase their profits. Our Xia country's goods occupy almost 70% of their market share. Although many of these goods are relatively low-end and have meager profits, they are still indispensable to their lives. Under the impact of our massive influx of goods, their local businesses can hardly survive. In the long run, we will take over all their food, clothing, housing, and transportation. When we stop supplying them, their society will descend into chaos. The reason they introduced this policy targeting us is that they are trying to save themselves, not out of kindness."
Although Chen Zhe felt there was some truth to it, he still didn't quite understand.
"But this has indirectly helped many of us. I used to be a migrant worker, so I can understand the suffering of people at the bottom of society."
Hu Ling shook her head slightly.
"Chen Zhe, your thinking shows that you completely misunderstand the logic of the market."
"logic?"
"That's right, the logic of market operation is that everything flows downhill. Do you understand what that means?"
"Please enlighten me, Sister Hu."
Hu Ling turned around and faced Chen Zhe.
Do you know why China has become a manufacturing powerhouse?
"Does it have a lot of cheap labor?"
"That's right. Decades ago, we were almost at the bottom of the world. Our country was poor, and people's monthly wages were no more than 50 yuan. This even included many social elites, whether scientists or technicians. Their income was very low. Low income meant low demand. Foreign capitalists could hire 100 or even 200 of our people for the monthly wages of an ordinary worker in their own countries. Such a huge gap made them set their sights on our workers. To them, they were high and we were low, so water naturally flowed to us, and they naturally built their factories here."
"I understand. Although their initial intention was for profit, it also indirectly helped us get more job opportunities."
"Heh, you still don't understand!"
Hu Ling took off her glasses and shook her head.
"Capital is heartless. From its inception, it has only one theme: profit. Now, many people online are thanking me, thinking I am a hero and that I have brought them benefits. This is somewhat similar to those who thanked foreigners in the past. However, I think this idea is incorrect. They don't need to thank me or foreigners, because our original intention was to obtain more benefits."
Chen Zhe never expected that Hu Ling would be so rational that she wouldn't even spare him.
"Sister Hu, I think you did a really good job, you're a hero."
"Hehe, I'm not a hero. I advise you not to have the same mindset as them. It's the most foolish thing to thank capitalists. The reason why workers abroad have high salaries is precisely because they never thank capitalists. They feel that their labor income is what they deserve. Having this kind of mindset is the right way of thinking to improve their living standards."
Chen Zhe was deeply shocked by those words.
"Sister Hu, it's only natural that they'd thank you for increasing their income, isn't it?"
“Normal? It looks normal, but in reality, normal is the biggest abnormality. Chen Zhe, I know what you're thinking. You come from a poor background, and you want people of your class to have better welfare benefits. That's understandable. People should never forget where they came from, and that's correct. But!”
Hu Ling's voice rose considerably.
"You need to understand that you have to consider different things when you're in different positions. You can't just stay on the surface when you try to understand a problem. It was normal for workers to have low wages in the past because you had to compete with the world for jobs. You couldn't earn more than others, or they wouldn't accept it and would naturally move their factories elsewhere. But now that we're in the top position in manufacturing, we can't keep squeezing workers. Improving workers' wages is also a way for us to save ourselves. If you do something for the employees of Linglong Club and you think they'll be grateful to you, that's wrong. What you do isn't for them, but to keep the Linglong Club machine running. That's the right thing to do."
Hu Ling's words made Chen Zhe think a lot. He finally realized that when it came to business acumen, he couldn't even come close to Hu Ling. However, Chen Zhe had one great advantage: he didn't get stuck on trivial details.
He did not resist Hu Ling's ideas, but rather approached learning with an open mind.
So he would deliberately throw out a lot of naive opinions, but these opinions were not necessarily his own thoughts. However, he wanted to hear different answers from Hu Ling.
As they chatted, they seemed to forget that time was slowly passing.
...
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