Chapter 1450: Uphold Integrity While Springing Surprises

In business, what is the most important thing?

It is to be adept at making choices and trade-offs.

The pursuit of freedom is human nature; the reason one must be good at取舍 is to adapt to the environment. Great men like to conquer the world, but another great man once said, not contending is a form of contending.

In fact, the best way to solve problems is to learn to sacrifice. Because every time you make a choice, there is a trade-off of interests; without the courage to sacrifice, there is no victory.

By the same token, a man must maintain this spirit of sacrifice and hold fast to his ideals as the sole psychological support.

Zhao Fusheng liked this saying very much. A long time ago, he forgot where he had read a book with a passage that was very true: when dealing with people, especially in business, always remember the four characters '守正出奇' (uphold integrity while springing surprises).

As the old saying goes, the art of the orthodox and the unorthodox should be used in tandem. If a person always thinks of winning by surprise, too much surprise turns into deviance. One must combine with the orthodox to achieve victory through the unorthodox.

Only with such a state of mind can one have the opportunity to achieve success.

Previously, using one hundred million US dollars to gamble on US stocks was a surprise move to win; now, decisively pulling back is not forgetting the fundamentals.

Of course, apart from Wu Sijie, the assistant to the chairman, few people knew about this news. Zhao Fusheng decisively asked Tan Kaixuan to transfer back the principal of one hundred million US dollars, and together with the interest, repaid the bank directly.

He still didn't like taking risks with borrowed money.

The Construction Bank was naturally quite happy, after all, lending out for less than a month and getting hundreds of thousands of US dollars in interest—who wouldn't be happy?

"Chairman, President Tan has transferred all the funds to your account." Wu Sijie said respectfully to Zhao Fusheng.

Having personally witnessed everything Zhao Fusheng did, Wu Sijie at this moment truly admired Zhao Fusheng from the bottom of his heart.

Damn amazing!

Almost in a way of getting something for nothing, he easily earned five hundred million US dollars. With this series of operations, Wu Sijie felt that any Buffett or the like was child's play compared to his own boss.

"Mm, call Miss Dong from Future Investment and ask her to come over."

Sitting in his office, Zhao Fusheng said to Wu Sijie.

Earlier, he had originally planned not to tell anyone about this matter, but upon second thought, he decided against it. Regardless, this money would eventually have to be invested in the company's subsequent operations.

"Okay, I'll notify her right away." Wu Sijie nodded, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Should I notify President Zheng?"

He was naturally referring to Zheng Yao.

After all, Zheng Yao was the CEO of Future Group; she would eventually find out about this matter.

Zhao Fusheng laughed. Having an assistant was really good; she helped him think of everything comprehensively.

"No need, I'll call her myself." Zhao Fusheng shook his head and instructed Wu Sijie, "You contact Miss Dong and tell her to come see me."

"Yes, Chairman." Wu Sijie quickly nodded, turned around, and left Zhao Fusheng's office.

Dong Chenxi soon received the news and came to Zhao Fusheng's office.

After she finished reading the documents Wu Sijie had given her, she looked up, utterly stunned: "You're saying you borrowed one hundred million US dollars from China Construction Bank, invested in US stocks, and made five hundred million a few days ago?"

"Yes." Zhao Fusheng nodded naturally. "I've already had Tan Kaixuan transfer the money over."

"No, have you gone crazy? That's one hundred million, and in US dollars!" Dong Chenxi was completely speechless, staring at Zhao Fusheng in shock. "Do you realize how much risk you took?"

"What if I said I was gambling? Would you believe me?" Zhao Fusheng chuckled, took a sip of tea from the cup in front of him, and said slowly, "You know the situation. The collapse of the subprime mortgage market in the US was only a matter of time. Smart people could see it, but no one expected New Century Financial to have such a big impact. So I was actually gambling on the market's lack of confidence."

"Gambling?"

Dong Chenxi couldn't help frowning. "Just because of that, you invested one hundred million US dollars? You told me before not to invest in financial markets, but you secretly did it yourself. Are you crazy?"

Zhao Fusheng laughed heartily and waved his hand: "I'm not crazy. This was the result of careful consideration. Although it was very likely to lose money, what if it paid off?"

Crazy!

At that moment, the only thought in Dong Chenxi's mind was that Zhao Fusheng was simply a mad gambler.

Actually, this was not surprising.

Because yellow-skinned people are undoubtedly the most gambling-prone group in the world. If you don't believe it, take a tour of the casinos in Las Vegas or Macau; the most frenzied gamblers are likely yellow-skinned people.

In Asia, it is the Chinese who have the heaviest gambling nature!

Even though the Chinese men's football team hasn't made it to the World Cup for decades, there are still plenty of fake fans and real gamblers cheering them on.

In Dong Chenxi's eyes, Zhao Fusheng was now exactly that kind of person.

"Alright, don't worry."

Zhao Fusheng smiled and said to Dong Chenxi, "There was a reason for my risk this time. The company's cash flow was too low before. Alibaba and Tencent are developing too fast. I was afraid that when we need to continue investing, we wouldn't have enough funds."

Dong Chenxi remained silent. She knew Zhao Fusheng was telling the truth.

The biggest problem for Future Group or Future Investment now was their insufficient cash flow.

As an investment company that hadn't been around long, Future Investment seemed to outsiders to have made successful moves every time, with high returns on their investments.

But the problem was that precisely because their investments were all successful, companies like Alibaba, Tencent Technology, and even Jingdong Mall would all go public in the future.

In other words, to ensure that their current shares were not diluted, Zhao Fusheng needed to invest more capital.

"You mean to put all this money into the investment company?" Dong Chenxi considered for a moment and decided not to dwell on Zhao Fusheng's earlier issue.

Regardless, he was indeed thinking about the company.

"Mm, I am considering it." Zhao Fusheng nodded. "But this matter still needs to be discussed with Zheng Yao."

As the CEO of the group company, Zheng Yao undoubtedly had the most say in this matter.

Even Zhao Fusheng, as the boss, needed to respect her opinion.

Soon, Zheng Yao received Zhao Fusheng's call and hurried to his office.

"What's the matter, calling me over so urgently? I still have a meeting to attend." Zheng Yao looked at Zhao Fusheng curiously and asked.

Then she looked at Dong Chenxi: "Is there something going on at Future Investment?"

She thought there was some new investment plan or change at Future Investment, and Dong Chenxi had come to Zhao Fusheng, who then called her over to discuss it.

Dong Chenxi shook her head and instead looked at Zhao Fusheng: "It was this guy who called you over."

"You?"

Zheng Yao frowned slightly: "What are you up to now?"

She had somewhat figured out Zhao Fusheng's personality; he always stirred up news from time to time, seemingly quiet but actually fond of making trouble.

Zhao Fusheng was amused by her words and said in surprise, "Look at you, what kind of attitude is that? Do I look like someone who stirs up trouble?"

"Don't you?"

Zheng Yao retorted bluntly, not giving Zhao Fusheng, the chairman, any face. She waved her hand and said, "Out with it. What's going on?"

"It's nothing much..." Zhao Fusheng then told Zheng Yao everything he had done, from initially persuading Tan Kaixuan to withdraw from the US market to the two of them joining forces to short US stocks, leaving nothing out.

After a long while, Zheng Yao stared at Zhao Fusheng, dumbfounded.