Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled

Chapter 781: Chapter 588: Sold Too Early

This wave of the pandemic is perhaps most terrifying not simply because of the illness itself.

Its greatest terror may lie in being the final straw that breaks the housing market.

Don’t think Chen Pingsheng is exaggerating. He knows full well that with 20 billion at hand, all stores outside Wu City are still running normally.

There wouldn’t be much of a crisis, even if he fully guarantees employee benefits.

Big corporations have their advantages—they can withstand pressure like no other.

Not to mention, they might not even be able to spend half of that 20 billion, let alone all of it.

After all, other locations are still open and generating profit.

The real moment to call on that money isn’t now; it’s when most places across the country end up like Wu City.

That’s when this money will truly be needed to hold everything together.

In truth, what Chen Pingsheng really fears isn’t the pandemic itself, but the chain reaction of consequences it will bring.

Especially as the final straw that collapses the housing market.

While housing prices have long been hated by the average person, the ramifications of a collapse would dwarf the pandemic itself.

It’s unavoidable—at least 80% of the middle class in the country have placed their assets in real estate.

Not to mention the countless wage earners who’ve taken loans to buy homes.

If housing prices drop, their down payments vanish, and bank interest evaporates.

The pandemic brings unemployment and pay cuts.

These factors inevitably lead to a downgrade in consumption, indirectly making it much harder for many businesses to survive.

And this is just the beginning. The scariest part is the outright collapse of the housing market.

It could even trigger widespread loan defaults, causing countless middle-class families to tighten their belts further and cut back on spending.

The results of these cascading problems have led the Economic Research Institute to a five-word conclusion:

The worst of times has arrived.

This aligns perfectly with Chen Pingsheng’s judgment. For over two decades, the housing market has been a locomotive pulling domestic infrastructure, urban development, tax revenue, and local government finances.

Yet, in some ways, it has also magnified the wealth gap to an extreme degree.

Its role in national development has been undeniably significant.

But for today’s younger generation, it’s an unshakeable mountain pressing down on their futures.

If housing prices can no longer hold steady, how many middle-class families will see three to five years of effort completely wasted because of their homes?

These are all major issues!

Of course, Chen Pingsheng isn’t the type to be overly pessimistic. He’s simply using these factors to predict what’s coming next.

Fortunately, aside from Water Cloud Space, his company isn’t involved in high-end consumption. Even in extreme cases like Wu City, full closures are manageable.

There are so many cities in the country. As long as not all stores or even half shut down—if closures are limited to less than a quarter—

Then the gross profit from stores in other cities would still be enough to cover employee benefits.

The worst-case scenario? Just no profits, that’s all.

The biggest expense of using 20 billion isn’t covering employee wages—it’s buying back shares from other shareholders.

Most other shareholders, unable to navigate this pandemic’s uncertainty, will likely offload their shares en masse.

Sitting in his headquarters office, Chen Pingsheng continues monitoring the situation in Wu City while analyzing what lies ahead.

His wife has already taken 5 billion to invest in the health and wellness industry, while Chu Qiuyan and Lin Qiunan of Dream Fund are redirecting 10 billion to prioritize investments in the same sector.

Every era is like this—where there is crisis, there is opportunity.

Though he allocated 20 billion to the group headquarters, he’s also betting 15 billion on the health and wellness sector.

Health and wellness is the opportunity. If Dream Fund and his wife’s Tongxin Family succeed, these billions will seem like a drop in the bucket.

Right now, many major corporations and capital owners are overwhelmed with their own struggles. There are still far too few who can come up with hundreds of billions in cash like he can.

Hong Kong and overseas capital seem relatively unscathed.

But domestic real estate developers? They’re all on edge. None of them have the capacity to compete with him in this sector.

Perhaps in less than three years, his group could foster a batch of thriving health and wellness enterprises.

Weighing the pros and cons, he knows he won’t lose money either way.

Still, since everyone is going through a tough time, he has to play the part of being in danger too.

Otherwise, they’d all come to him asking for loans.

…

And indeed, many have approached Chen Pingsheng to borrow money, including Song Shuiqing’s in-laws—the Tang Family from Magic City—who’ve been watching these developments closely.

They started asking to borrow money from Chen Pingsheng six months ago and haven’t stopped since.

What else can they do? While housing prices haven’t officially dropped yet, the inability to sell is already a hard reality.

This is perfectly normal. In the secondary market, top real estate speculators have been dumping properties left and right.

With so much inventory entering the market and fewer buyers, these real estate developers are in for a tough time.

Real estate development has thrived on high debt and fast turnover in recent years.

Once properties become hard to sell, those debts become their final straw.

Stuck in the middle, Song Shuiqing doesn’t have it easy. She even reached out to Song Yanxi privately at one point.

Song Yanxi’s response? “Think of any possible way to sell properties quickly and get cash flow back.”

As for lending money to real estate businesses, forget it.

You simply can’t afford to lend to them. Even a moderately sized real estate company has debts in the hundreds of billions.

Sure, their properties and land assets might not fall too far short of their debt levels.

But once these assets stop cashing out and begin losing value—

The bank interest doesn’t drop, and with even marginally longer return cycles, real estate companies like the Tang Family are practically pulling their hair out in panic.

They’re genuinely desperate, but Chen Pingsheng simply pretends he has no money.

Everyone knows he’s wealthy—the only one with zero debt.

Unless the sky is literally falling, or a nuclear bomb lands, there’s no “danger” for him at all!

Chen Pingsheng treats all this like charity. Everyone’s struggling.

Business acquaintances can continue normal relationships. Relatives can maintain civil ties. But lending money? Forget it.

Because of this, the Tang Family has held quite a grudge against Song Shuiqing.

This outcome isn’t what they expected at all.

They had banked on Chen Pingsheng lending them a lifeline at the critical moment, only to find him completely unmoved no matter what they said.

And he has no choice but to remain unmoved. His assistant Tang Jing is currently monitoring his private account, and every single contact message is about borrowing money.

The ones who haven’t asked for loans yet are just working on how to ask. Many of these people are well-known business figures.

Who could he possibly lend to?

And it’s still just the beginning. If they can’t make it past this stage, even if he loaned money out, it would be meaningless.

So Chen Pingsheng won’t lend a single cent.

Still, there’s one thing he regrets—selling off Pinduoduo too early.

In an era of consumption upgrades, platforms like Taobao and JD.com, which aim at premium markets, become increasingly valuable.

But in a consumption downgrade, it’s Pinduoduo’s time to shine.

The absurdly low prices on their platform need no introduction.

Undoubtedly, this pandemic is dragging everyone toward consumption downgrade.

And Pinduoduo’s stock price will rise and rise. He genuinely thinks he sold too soon.

Clearing his stake in Meituan, however, doesn’t concern him at all.