Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled-Chapter 750 - 558 Chang Fu’s Dream
Chapter 750 -558 Chang Fu’s Dream
In the past, Chang Fu completely understood Chen Pingsheng, even offering that kind of unconditional support without ambition.
But this time, he couldn’t quite grasp it.
First, whether it’s producing TV dramas or movies, relying solely on the domestic market could hardly sustain Tengying Entertainment’s valuation of over 150 billion yuan.
And ever since he joined Tengying Entertainment, he quickly put a stop to its downward spiral, raised the stock price, and even directly altered Tengying Entertainment’s declining trend to some extent.
It could be said that what he achieved was entirely in line with the expectations of the capital market.
No one could have expected that he would negate all his efforts at Tengying Entertainment because of a public opinion survey.
Chang Fu couldn’t understand this decision when he arrived at Tengying Entertainment, and something even harder for him to accept occurred.
Before he even arrived, Bai Xin had already spread the news about shutting down celebrity live-streaming.
This could be seen as bypassing him, the CEO. Bai Xin wasn’t intentionally trying to undermine him; instead, she was simply following orders to begin preparations for an external press conference.
Chang Fu said nothing. To Tengying Entertainment, he was merely a CEO transferred in less than two years ago.
CEOs can change, but the boss will never change.
When Chang Fu realized this, he still made a call to Yang Qian.
He explained in broad terms that he wanted to start his own venture for real this time; after all, he now had more than enough money saved up.
Even if he shared this idea with Old Chen, Chang Fu believed he wouldn’t object.
After all, once celebrity live-streaming was shut down, his contribution to this company was effectively zero.
If that was the case, he might as well take the initiative.
Yang Qian didn’t immediately oppose the idea but instead asked him what he planned to do next.
Chang Fu, of course, said that he wouldn’t touch live-streaming or engage in any competition with Old Chen.
As for what exactly he planned to do, he didn’t have immediate clarity.
Yang Qian stayed silent for a long time. She neither agreed nor disagreed. When Chang Fu returned home,
she had specifically prepared a warm, home-cooked dinner. The couple rarely cooked meals themselves anymore.
The household was usually taken care of by a maid.
Yang Qian wanted to hear the real reason he wanted to leave Tengying Group from his own mouth. Chang Fu said it wasn’t complicated.
“Since I shut down the live-streaming in Hangzhou and made my way to Capital City to join Old Chen, it’s been at least six years. Over these six years, everything I’ve built has been thanks to Old Chen, but as you know, no man achieves success just to live forever in someone else’s shadow. I’m telling you today so that tomorrow, I can tell Old Chen. I trust he’ll understand.”
Over the years, it was fair to say that Chang Fu had entirely lived under the shadow of Chen Pingsheng. Even Gao Hu, back in the day, had been more or less the same.
There was, of course, nothing inherently wrong with this, but once a man reaches financial independence and success, he will inevitably want to take that extra step forward.
Desire is like this—once unleashed, it can never be wholly contained again.
Chen Pingsheng had faced this issue, and now Chang Fu was encountering it too.
Over the past two years alone, Chang Fu had cashed out tens of billions through Xin Teng Live Streaming and Teng You Media.
Financial freedom was a given.
Yang Qian wasn’t worried that after leaving Tengying Group, Chang Fu would end up in dire straits.
What concerned her was whether his departure would ruin his relationship with Chen Pingsheng.
Chang Fu repeatedly assured her it wouldn’t, and the facts would later prove him right.
Outsiders found it hard to understand the mindset of people who reached their level, but Chen Pingsheng understood.
Just as Chang Fu had thought, he might still want to take another step forward, while Chen Pingsheng himself no longer did.
In fact, Chen Pingsheng actively sought ways to suppress his own ambitions; any further progress would be dangerous territory.
What he could do was to focus on steadily managing the Tengying Group as it was now,
until he could seamlessly hand it over to Chen An’an and the others.
His future would have to involve venturing into the tech industry.
Diving deeper into other industries would lead to encountering problems similar to those Tengying Entertainment faced.
When you possess excessive social resources and keep digging downward, it’s akin to undermining the roots of ordinary people.
The only way forward is upward.
Even now, Chang Fu still didn’t understand why Chen Pingsheng chose to shut down celebrity live-streaming or why he rejected so many lucrative proposals for the company.
Just think about it: he controlled half the country’s entertainment resources,
owned half a short video empire, and had countless offline chain businesses.
If he had kept pushing downwards, doing whatever made the most money,
all it would take was one word from the people at the top to render him speechless.
“Do you want to become a oligarch?”
Chen Pingsheng patted Chang Fu on the shoulder. “I’m genuinely glad that you still have the ambition to move forward. Unfortunately, Tengying Group has already reached its peak. The work left now isn’t breaking through this ceiling but switching paths to find a higher sky.”
What he really wanted to say was that the traditional business model had indeed hit its limits.
Higher skies could only be reached by developing technology, renewable energy, and artificial intelligence of the future.
These endeavors weren’t things that could produce a Fortune 500 company overnight.
Even someone as capable as him wouldn’t dare claim to succeed within five, ten, or even twenty years.
Chang Fu smiled bitterly. “Yesterday, my wife Yang Qian had a deep talk with me for an entire evening. Her biggest worry was that we might fall out because of this. If she heard what you said now, she’d be overjoyed.”
“Your wife is just a bit too sensitive.”
Chen Pingsheng shook his head and said, “We’re not some business partners tied by interests, so there’s no need to part ways over them. Right now, Tengying Group does limit you quite a lot. You’ve got your own network, and you’re not short on funds—it’s only natural to step out and build a sky of your own.”
“What a pity.”
Chang Fu sighed. “The four of us brothers—whether it’s Zhang Tao or Gao Hu—severely underestimated your vision and foresight. Even myself. There are many things I might not have understood at the time, but after working under you for a few years, I’ve realized you were always right.
Gao Hu hit a bottleneck and let his desires run wild, leading to the breakup of his family. Zhang Tao, feeling there was no future in selling fruit, ended up investing in unreliable financial platforms.
If they had been honest about their thoughts like I was, I bet they could’ve left with your blessing too, just like me.
I believe it’ll be the same this time. Even though I still don’t fully understand why you let manipulated public opinion influence you into entirely shutting down Tengying Entertainment’s live-streaming.”
This wasn’t just about decreasing the profits of celebrity live-streaming—it also meant losing hundreds of billions of Tengying Entertainment’s market value.
It wouldn’t even be surprising if it fell out of the trillion-yuan valuation club.
The losses that came with this were all just because of a public opinion survey.
Even after thinking about it the whole night, Chang Fu still couldn’t make sense of it.
“The day you understand it might be the day you no longer feel as passionate as you do now.”
Chen Pingsheng didn’t deliberately explain. He wasn’t even sure if Chang Fu would ever see that ceiling.
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If that day did come, it might also be time for Chen Pingsheng to retire and enjoy life.
Their generation—the 1980s-born—had experienced the best era of economic reform and opening,
and they would also endure the pains of the next economic transition.
Everything is a process. Only after passing through it can one truly understand the old saying: “A mountain is just a mountain, water is just water.”
