Chapter 1181: If There's a Chance, You Must Work with Han Lie

Chapter 1181: Chapter 474: If There’s a Chance, You Must Work with Han Lie

Even though the connection was made through Zhao Yin International, to show how seriously he took this, Han Lie brought Tang Xintian and went personally to Ning Wang’s headquarters.

After they landed at the airport, the person picking them up was the number two at the Huzhou branch of CCB, surname Lu.

“Uncle Lu!”

Tang Xintian greeted him with a radiant smile and pulled Han Lie over to introduce him.

“Hello, hello, Lu Xing!”

“Teacher Han, your great name is like thunder to the ears. Before you head back you must come to the bank and say a few words to everyone!”

Old Lu was just over fifty, probably no longer had much drive to keep climbing, so his style was carefree and casual. Compared with other branch presidents of the same rank, he was much more blunt.

“Definitely, definitely!”

Han Lie agreed on the spot.

The group got in the car and headed straight for Ning Wang’s headquarters.

In the car, Sister Da Tang finally explained to Han Lie: “Uncle Lu used to be the top dog at the Ning Wang City CCB branch. A lot of business in the Ning Wang Era was done with CCB, he’s very familiar with President Zeng.”

See, this is what the ceiling level of a thoughtful big sister looks like, right?!

She hadn’t just carefully dug up information on Ning Wang, she’d even prepared in advance the bridges for easing the mood and building personal ties…

Dog Lie was deeply moved, leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Tonight I’m going to give you a proper thank you!”

“Get lost!”

Sister Da Tang didn’t blush; instead, she was shocked.

“We’re out here to do serious business, you behave yourself!”

Dog Lie had a dirty joke just about to come out of his mouth, but unfortunately didn’t have time to say it — they’d arrived.

At Ning Wang’s front gate, President Zeng and President Huang were already waiting.

Seeing Lu Xing get out of the car, President Zeng froze for a second, then broke into a big laugh and went forward to hug him: “Well, well, Lu Xing, old friend, such a rare guest, what wind blew you over here? Pulling a surprise raid on me, are you?”

“How would I have the free time to raid your crappy factory?”

Old Lu curled his lip disdainfully, pulled Tang Xintian to his side: “My old leader’s daughter is coming to this dump of yours for due diligence, I came along to watch, in case you scam her!”

President Zeng’s mind spun, and a few names surfaced.

But he didn’t ask directly; he calmly waited for Old Lu to introduce.

“My niece, Tang Xintian, currently serves as director of the Investment Banking Department at the Magic Capital branch of SPD Bank…”

He didn’t even really listen to the rest; instead, he focused on thinking about the surname Tang.

However, President Zeng at this time had yet to reach the level of status he’d have later. In 2023 he’d be vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, but right now the most presentable honor on him was a Fujian Province Outstanding Scientific Worker award.

His position wasn’t there yet, so his frame of reference was limited to Fujian’s upper echelon, and no matter how he turned it over in his head, he couldn’t match it to anyone.

And Old Lu was in fact gilding his own face; he wasn’t actually a direct subordinate of Tang Yue’s father, but a direct subordinate of Tang Yue’s father’s secretary.

Only when everyone had finished the pleasantries and were heading toward the plant’s exhibition hall did Old Lu quietly level with President Zeng.

“Little Tang is the daughter of President Tang at the PBoC, the one my direct boss so-and-so used to serve… Old Zeng, I don’t care whether you guys can reach a deal or not, but on the surface you absolutely cannot drop the ball!”

President Zeng inhaled sharply, like sucking in a sheet of cold bean jelly, and suddenly felt that this Han Lie fellow was unfathomable.

Fear was a bit much, because their industries didn’t overlap at all.

But the level of importance definitely went up another notch; he no longer dared treat Han Lie as an ordinary young fund manager.

After a twenty-minute tour, Han Lie had gained a more detailed and intuitive understanding of Ning Wang.

How to put it…

Right now, Ning Wang doesn’t deserve that “King” character. It’s just a “trivial” midstream company muddling along in a “trivial” industry.

People in later years all know new energy vehicles are fierce, but in 2014, who believed in this stuff?

The real orders were all for various large buses and coaches; there was basically no private car market.

Next year, 2015, Tesla’s full-year sales of new energy vehicles were fifty thousand units — pathetic, right?

If whole vehicles were like that, how good could it be for those making power batteries?

Besides, Ning Wang wasn’t number one in power batteries at the moment; ahead of it were BYD, Lishen, Boston, Wanxiang — it was just barely in fifth place.

So, not only was President Zeng not arrogant now, he was actually full of anxiety.

But that didn’t mean he lacked confidence in his business.

“New energy vehicles are a key industry in the national Five-Year Plans; it’s only a matter of time before they develop. And in this field we have an opportunity to overtake. The market is vast, and for people like us there’s great work to be done!”

After that, President Zeng even recited a poem for Han Lie.

“President Han, I’m especially fond of Yang Juyuan’s Early Spring in the City East from the Tang dynasty. Let me share it with you now, so we can appreciate it together—

The poet’s pure scenery lies in the new spring, Green willows just turning yellow, half yet uneven. If we wait till Upper Forest’s blossoms are like brocade, Once out the door, all are people out to see the flowers!”

Good grief!

Who exactly is conning whom today?!

But precisely because of this, it ended up pushing Han Lie’s fighting spirit to the max.

“I completely agree with President Zeng’s view.”

Han Lie finally spotted President Zeng’s personality weakness and simply started throwing straight balls: “So I’ve come this time not to add flowers to brocade, but to send charcoal in the snow.

I’ll give you a 20x PE. Tell me how much capital you’re short; name a figure!”

He directly stunned both President Zeng and President Huang.

They really hadn’t seen this kind of investor before!

Frankly, Ning Wang right now is definitely not worth a 20x PE; that premium is way too high.

President Zeng and President Huang silently exchanged a glance and tentatively asked, “President Han, may we ask what your reasoning is?”

The reasoning is that poem.

Seriously, not exaggerating at all — just because of that poem, I’ve got your personality down cold.

During this half-day of contact, Master of Psychology Lie hadn’t done anything else; he’d just been studying people.

As a person, President Zeng’s biggest personality trait is tenacity, and his greatest talent is high Strength and Intelligence. Years of tempering had made his emotions not show on his face, which is why the earlier psychological profiling hadn’t progressed much.

But after hearing that poem, combined with President Zeng’s past experiences, Han Lie finally found a weakness he could exploit.

Arrogant.

Big Brother Zeng comes from the countryside. He was good at studying from childhood all the way through university. He studied Naval Architecture at Jiaotong University, then went to work at a foreign-funded factory, Newtech Electronics. After that he realized what he’d learned wasn’t enough and barely related to his work, so he literally worked by day and, in sequence, did a master’s in Electronics and Information Engineering at South China University of Technology and then a PhD in Condensed Matter Physics at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In terms of Intelligence, Brother Zeng isn’t that ultimate top-tier kind. His physics olympiad level was only provincial first prize; he wasn’t so ridiculously smart that getting into Qingbei would’ve been a walk in the park.

The achievements this big brother has today all depend on sheer grit.

Think about it: the academic span is that huge, he’s busy with work at the same time, and he’s not a Wei Shen–level brain. Without grit, could he have pulled it off?

Likewise, it was precisely this grit and love of learning that caught the eye of his then Hong Kong–capital boss, Chen Tanghua, who kept promoting him all the way up to Engineering Director, and then took him along to start the first new-energy tech company.

Looking over his first half of life, up to now, Big Brother Zeng has always been a winner in life.

This has nothing to do with luck; it’s because he’s smart enough and tough enough to create opportunities and seize them himself.

But it’s also exactly because he’s relied on himself all the way up, with no fluky windfalls behind all those successes, that he’s developed a deep-rooted, intense arrogance in his character.

That poem already shows it very clearly—

If you don’t invest in me now, once I’ve built this company up, there’ll be a line of people begging to invest.

The industry’s prospects are laid out right there: early spring, willows just turning green and yellow. This is the best window.

I firmly believe in the future of the industry, and I firmly believe in my own future.

Carefully savor it—isn’t that what it means?

So Han Lie just goes with the flow and piles on the fuel.

“President Zeng!”

Dog Lie is moved; his voice drags the magnetism slider to max, low and full of Strength.

“My reason is you!”

The conference room falls dead silent. It’s not that no one’s seen this routine before; they just haven’t seen this routine coming from a 20-year-old.

Actor Lie doesn’t care about that. As long as the director doesn’t yell “cut,” he keeps acting; even if the director does yell “cut,” he still has to finish this scene!

“I can see the prospects of the power battery industry. But among dozens of related companies—who’s stronger, who has more growth potential, whose technology best represents the future—as an outsider, I can’t tell.

So when I invest in a power battery company, I don’t look first at the company; I look at the person leading it.

How’s his vision? How’s his fighting spirit? How’s his breadth of mind? How’s his resilience?

And the reason I chose Ning Wang, and came personally on my very first stop, is exactly because after comparing the leaders of all the battery companies, I discovered President Zeng’s extraordinary experiences.

Before I met President Zeng, I already told Sister Tian: in terms of resilience, President Zeng should be ranked number one in the industry.

A farm boy, not even quite a “poor family” in the strict sense, yet he moved all the way from Naval Architecture to Electronic Information and then to Condensed Matter Physics; in business he’s competent as a CEO, in research he holds multiple patents in his hands—what an astonishing level of perseverance is that?

After meeting President Zeng and having a good long chat, I further saw his breadth of mind and his strategic vision.

I also really like Secretary Lang Yang Jingshan’s poems.

The last line of one of them happens to be particularly fitting to describe President Zeng—’Don’t be trapped by Rain-Flower Society’s constraints; the blue skies are still your road ahead.’

Clearly he’s already financially free, yet he still fights on the front line, holding great ambitions, pursuing grand goals and ideals. With a founder like this, what possible reason is there not to invest?”

It was visible to the naked eye: President Zeng’s big bright forehead was sheened with a thin layer of sweat.

At the same time, his neck was also turning slightly red.

Old Zeng has definitely been flattered before, but we have to admit: flattery also comes in grades.

Dog Lie’s speech hit precisely the itchiest spot in his heart.

Especially that line he quoted from Yang Juyuan’s “To White Si Ma of Jiangzhou,” which made Old Zeng feel a strong sense of being truly understood.

“Teacher Han, you’re remarkable! Broadly learned and sharp of mind, erudite as if you’d read five cartloads of books! These days very few people even know Yang Juyuan’s real name, yet you actually know he once served as Secretary Lang, courtesy name Jingshan?

You say I’ve crossed many disciplines, but you yourself are proficient in economics and finance and still have such profound grounding in classical poetry. It shows how strict you are with yourself.

Impressive, really impressive!”

Han Lie immediately waved his hand: “Hey, what ‘Teacher Han’? Call me Little Brother Han!”

Tang Xintian hurriedly clapped a hand over her mouth and tilted her head, almost losing composure.

But Old Zeng’s interest was completely fired up. He called out “Little Brother Han,” and then they started chatting boisterously.

Hating that they met so late!

At noon they had a simple meal in the plant cafeteria, talking with wild, free-ranging leaps through ancient and modern times.

At night they went for drinks again, arms around each other’s shoulders, calling each other brother, and they were just one step short of slaughtering a chicken and swearing brotherhood on the spot…

After that, the Old Lu they’d brought along was basically never needed; Han Lie handled Old Zeng all on his own.

Of course, don’t think Old Lu didn’t play any role. The fact that he could show up here to stand in for Tang Xintian, to act as a guarantee for Han Lie, already carried huge weight on its own.

In the end, Old Zeng decided to sell 15% of the shares to Tianhang at 20 times PE.

Then supposedly, a slightly drunk and heroic Han Lie waved his hand: “We’re our own brothers here, why haggle stingily over useless crap? Little brother knows you’re short of cash. How about this, let me bump your price up a bit—30 times PE; you give me 30% of the shares. Is that enough to spend? If not, I’ll add more!”

Old Zeng was so moved his eyes were brimming with tears.

“Enough, enough, enough! This money is plenty for me to expand capacity; it’ll last easily till early ’16. By then the industry should already have entered its explosive growth phase. Then when we start our Series B, it’ll definitely go much more smoothly!”

Whoa!

Old Zeng’s not bad at all.

His judgment of industry trends is downright brilliant!

2016 is exactly when new energy vehicles enter their explosive phase, and power batteries rise with the tide, valuations soaring.

But at that time, no matter how high Ning Wang’s valuation went, Han Lie already had enough capital to follow on.

After all, he’d already locked down the fattest chunk in advance, hadn’t he?

Just like that, Han Lie spent 1.5 billion and hammered down 30% of Ning Wang’s shares, also securing lead-investor rights for subsequent financings.

Triumphant return.

And President Zeng, within their Fujian Province circle, started telling everyone he met: “My Little Brother Han, he not only has a sharp eye, he’s also especially generous and loyal. Brothers, if you ever get a chance, you absolutely have to work with Han Lie!”

************

Next month I’ll probably slow the updates down and really think about how to wrap this up.

Then I’ll post the openings of one or two new books, see the feedback, and study how to switch styles.

Damn it, if I write another financial–business novel I’m a dog!