My capital is quite large.

Chapter 313 The Storm Is Brewing

Just as the anti-gang and anti-crime campaign at Dongda University was advancing in depth and in a grand manner, and countless local judicial cancers were being eradicated,

The capital market, however, responded to this government storm with a different, more enthusiastic attitude.

Haofeng Group, a well-known patriotic enterprise in Liangjiang Province, has announced some exciting news.

Haofeng Animation and Film City, a subsidiary that was recently spun off from the group and began operating independently, successfully completed its angel round of financing for its IPO in a very short period of time.

Moreover, with the special green channel provided by the province and the strong support of local financial institutions, the subsidiary plans to complete all IPO procedures within the next six months and choose to list on the A-share market.

This news immediately attracted the attention of the entire financial industry.

It's important to understand that in the current business environment, it's remarkable to push a super cultural tourism and animation project with a valuation of tens of billions of yuan onto the A-share market.

Whether it's revitalizing the local economy of Liangjiang Province, boosting the surrounding supporting industrial chains, or injecting a strong boost into the long-sluggish Dongda stock market, it can be described as a huge positive development.

Local departments at all levels gave the green light all the way, and the speed of progress was nothing short of miraculous.

On the day of the IPO press conference, Li Feng, who had not appeared in public for some time, stood at the podium for the first time in a long while.

Facing the frenzied flashing lights and hundreds of mainstream media outlets in the audience, Li Feng, with a sincere expression, delivered a moving speech demonstrating a strong sense of the big picture:

"Every step of Haofeng Group's growth to where it is today is inseparable from the policy support of Southeast University."

"My success today is nothing more than a stroke of good luck. I just happened to be born in the spring breeze of reform and opening up, and became one of the first people to get rich under the dividends of this era."

At this point, Li Feng paused slightly, his gaze sweeping across the room, his tone becoming firm and powerful:

"But making money is by no means the only goal of Haofeng Group!"

"As a homegrown Dongda Group enterprise, we must shoulder the corporate responsibilities that belong to our group."

"That is to actively respond to the nation's call and fulfill the social responsibility of those who get rich first to help those who are still poor!"

"I, Li Feng, am a private entrepreneur, absolutely not the kind of irresponsible and unscrupulous capitalists like those Americans!"

"Every step forward our Haofeng Group takes will be a testament to our unwavering commitment to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!"

The moment the speech ended, the press conference room fell silent. Then, several people from the province who were present were the first to stand up and applaud.

The next second, thunderous applause and cheers almost lifted the roof off the venue.

……

However, just as everything in Haofeng Group was thriving and full of vitality.

Its long-time rival, Tencent, is not having such a comfortable time.

It could even be said that Tencent's entertainment division is currently facing a major problem that could be crippling.

Because South Korea insisted on deploying the so-called "sat" system on its own territory, its diplomatic and geopolitical relations with Dongda University plummeted overnight, and the situation became extremely tense.

Tencent, with its deep connections and information channels at the top, was among the first to receive internal warnings that something was amiss: the higher-ups were brewing a policy to drastically tighten censorship of Korean dramas, entertainment, and the activities of Korean stars within Tokyo University. An unofficial ban on Korean content was imminent.

Upon receiving this news, a wave of lamentation swept through the headquarters building of Tencent Video.

Tencent Video is unique in China as the video platform that imports the most Korean dramas, relies most heavily on the "Korean Wave" traffic, and invests the most real money in the Korean cultural industry.

A rough inventory of Tencent Video's Korean entertainment assets reveals figures that are enough to make one's head spin:

They not only have several big-budget Sino-Korean co-production dramas currently in production, but also a large number of popular Korean dramas for which they have already bought exclusive online streaming rights at high prices and are currently scheduled for release.

This is all pure silver!

If the policy tightens in the near future, causing all these dramas to be unable to be screened or promoted, then the copyright and production investment of up to one billion RMB will become a pile of unrecoverable bad debts.

Who should be held accountable to the group for this enormous loss?

These past few days, the CEO's office at Tencent Video has been filled with smoke.

The person in charge suffered from insomnia night after night, begging and pleading with all parties to inquire about information, hoping that those Korean conglomerates would calm down a bit and stop causing trouble.

While actively seeking out policy trends, Tencent Video has also begun to secretly try to save itself.

They are going around the world promoting and selling the exclusive broadcasting rights to classic Korean dramas that they bought for a lot of money, such as "My Love from the Star" and "The Heirs," which have already been released.

Their goal is very simple: to resell these hot potatoes to other platforms before the policy is implemented, and recover as much of their costs as possible.

However, if the broadcasting rights and subsequent derivative development of these classic old dramas are also included, the total potential losses faced by Tencent Video in this force majeure event will approach the 3 billion RMB mark.

Unlike its neighbor iQiyi, which, with the support of Haofeng's entertainment ecosystem, had already turned a profit before its IPO through content upgrades and a membership system, iQiyi has achieved similar success.

Due to its early blind imitation and high-priced copyright wars, Tencent Video has yet to achieve profitability.

If this year's financial report, on top of the existing losses, adds another three billion yuan in bad debts due to force majeure.

Not only did Tencent Video lose the opportunity to be spun off and listed independently in the short term, but even at the group's annual strategic meetings, the person in charge probably couldn't explain it to Pony Ma.

......

June is gradually coming to an end, and the cicadas' chirping in the height of summer arrives as scheduled with the annual graduation season.

In this season filled with farewells and hopes, Liu Yifei, who has been out of the public eye for a long time, made a rare appearance on Haofeng's Weibo.

Her daily updates are very simple, without any gorgeous dresses or stills from the film set, only a red-background, gold-embossed master's degree certificate from Tsinghua or Peking University.

This post quickly ignited the long-dormant fan community, with the comment section filled with tens of thousands of exclamations and compliments within minutes.

"Congratulations on your successful graduation! You truly possess both beauty and brains!"

"A master's degree from Tsinghua or Peking University—Liu Yifei's academic credentials are incredibly prestigious, even within the Chinese entertainment industry!"

"Sister, now that you've finished your studies, when are you going to join the production team and go back to work? We've been waiting forever!"

Amid cheers and urging, the usual gossip and whispers also arrived as expected.

Many astute netizens and haters quickly turned their attention to Yang Mi, who was also a classmate of Tsinghua and Peking University students, and started a sarcastic and dig-out mode.

"A massive public execution scene! I remember Yang Mi and Liu Yifei entered school together, right? They were even classmates. How come Liu Yifei has already graduated, but Yang Mi hasn't made a move at all?"

"Exactly! She's always marketing herself as a top student, but all her classmates have already gotten their degrees while she hasn't even received a graduation notice. I'm afraid she'll have to postpone her graduation, right?"

"It seems there really is a difference between test-takers and true academic geniuses."