Chapter 194: Tit for Tat

Words : 1769 Updated : Sep 23rd, 2025

On the afternoon of the 25th, Tianxing Phase One updated its net value. The net value this month still hadn't broken 3, and even the growth rate for the month had hit a new low, not even reaching 10%. However, a host of investors were very patient, since Lu Liang's comments on Twitter indicated he was considering a move against the yen. It wasn't the most opportune moment yet; perhaps the current calm was the quiet before an impending storm. Meanwhile, the brother-in-law drove his father-in-law's Volvo, dropping off Lu Liang and a few others at the nearby high-speed rail station. The family home was less than three hundred kilometers from Ningde, which was best accessed by high-speed rail—it only took an hour and a half. "Brother-in-law, you can go back, we're about to enter the station," As Lu Liang watched his brother-in-law leave, he suddenly remembered that his sister's family seemed not to have a family car, just a delivery van. By contrast, in his Modu warehouse, he had seven or eight vehicles that were operable or not. Searᴄh the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Just Tesla Model X alone he had two, because Li Bing took one apart, so he ended up with two. But as for pure electric ones, Lu Liang was not quite convinced by their reliability, and Lamborghini and Ferrari seemed a bit too flashy. Wen Chao seemed to have picked up on Lu Liang's thoughts and said softly, "Mr. Lu, the company still has an A4 that Mr. Tang gave up." Lu Liang's eyes brightened, and he smiled approvingly, "Then contact them to arrange for someone to drive the car here." As far as he knew, Tang Caide's A4 might not even have 3,000 kilometers on it, having been swiftly exchanged for a Panamera. Since then, it had been collecting dust in the parking lot. He would let Lu Ya drive it for a while, then later put on a crippling discount sale for her. Just giving it to her outright probably wouldn't be accepted, and he might even suffer a lashing from her. At 2:30 in the afternoon, the high-speed train arrived in Ningde. Ningde Era sent several cars to pick them up, accompanied by a vice president named Su Boyuan. "Mr. Lu, that across is the West Factory, our main production base; we're now heading to the engineering center," Upon reaching Chijian Lake, Su Boyuan warmly introduced everything, noting that the lakeshore stretched with their industrial parks. Ningde was the name of a city, and their daring to call themselves Ningde Era naturally stemmed from the support of the local government—they wanted to showcase Ningde's powerful strength. Lu Liang laughed, "Recently I visited Shenzhen and noticed that many city buses there have switched to electric power." His visit was for the financing of Ningde Era, and he planned to take on all the subscription shares by himself. The valuation of Ningde was between 33 billion and 36 billion US dollars, Su Boyuan hoped for the higher end, while naturally, Lu Liang aimed for the lower. Hu Jian was in a coastal province, and Ningde was a coastal city where the economy is hardly poor. If he let him brag, it's as if Ningde was born for Ningde Era, then the valuation would certainly be maxed out. Su Boyuan wasn't in the mood to feel embarrassed about being seen through: "BYD has been established for 21 years now, with power batteries, complete vehicle manufacturing, and rail transit being among their main businesses." Ningde Era had been established for just five years, yet they had already become one of the top three power battery suppliers globally. If they were given another sixteen years to develop, their achievements might well surpass BYD. "The pace of technological replacement is incredibly fast," Lu Liang remarked. Once formidable Nokia's cellphone division alone was valued at 300 billion US dollars, but recent news suggested a plan to sell off the entire division for 3 billion US dollars. A dynasty could disappear just like that—in sixteen years, the president could have changed four times. Caught off-guard, Su Boyuan became momentarily speechless; sixteen years could indeed change a dynasty, and there were indeed many uncertainties. Luckily, the car stopped, and they arrived at the engineering center. Zeng Minqun greeted them with a smile at the entrance, with a red carpet and banners, while employees lined up to welcome them. "Mr. Zeng, long time no see, today's setup seems a bit over the top," Lu Liang teased with a smile. Old Zeng shook his head slightly, his smile still present: "Not excessive, there may be opportunities for cooperation in the future." Clearly, he also believed the rumors as Lu Liang had first invested in NIO, then Li Xiang, and even established a research and development project team. This wasn't typical investor behavior, it could only mean that Lu Liang intended to get personally involved in car manufacturing. "I hope everything goes as Mr. Zeng wishes," Lu Liang chuckled. The group followed Zeng Minqun into the engineering center, visiting the R&D department, the battery division, and the production department in turn. Lu Liang had spent a week at Ningde Era, during which a steady stream of colleagues from Modu came to join in the corporate audit. This was an investment project exceeding 3 billion, presumably the last round of financing before Ningde Era went public. If all went smoothly, they could kick off the IPO process by the end of the year, then conduct roadshows, aiming for a listing on the A-shares market the following year. Originally, Ningde wanted to list on US stocks, and they were even on the verge of finalizing a 3.5 billion US Dollar deal with Ford. Last year, Ford was prepared to invest 3.5 billion US Dollars to establish a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery factory entirely at its expense, while Ningde Era was responsible for providing technology and service support to this factory, in simple terms, Ningde Era would provide the expertise while Ford would provide the funding. However, the move was curbed by the state, and Ningde's path to listing in the United States was abruptly cut off, leaving A-shares as the only option. "We'll need at least 500 million US Dollars." Lu Liang planned to invest in US Dollars, an offer too tempting for any company to refuse. Especially for Ningde, who had no hope of listing in the United States, they probably needed this US Dollar investment even more since they had been establishing labs around the world for the past few years. "The issue is where the money will come from." Lu Liang had a bit of a headache, even though the two funds he managed had a combined total asset value of over 2.85 billion US Dollars. But it was already June 3rd, and in less than 40 days, the results of the situation in the south would be made public. The funds they had prepared, including the reserve funds, amounted to only 1.25 billion US Dollars, 7.5 billion short of the 2 billion target. If they were to invest 500 million US Dollars in Ningde Era, the funding gap would widen to 1.25 billion US Dollars. It was uncertain whether they could gather the complete amount by early July. After much deliberation, Lu Liang decided to delay the investment into Ningde Era, at least until the end of July. After all, he could offer financing in US Dollars, And that meant the terms could be negotiated further. The next morning, both parties engaged in intense discussions. The main point of contention was the valuation of Ningde Era. Ningde's side naturally wanted the highest valuation possible and presented the new energy sales report from the first quarter of the year. Both new and old car manufacturers were gearing up, and capital from all quarters was eager to break into the new energy industry. As one of the world's leading power battery suppliers, they naturally expected an explosive increase in future sales. Analysts predicted that this year's shipments should reach over 7.0 GWh, equating to 140,000 lithium batteries. Tang Caide rebutted, "According to our company's investigation, Ningde's power batteries make up 19.2% of the national market. So, does your company believe that this year's new energy vehicle sales will reach 700,000 units?" "The sales volume for the first quarter of this year was only 78,000. Is your company suggesting that for the following three quarters, there will be an average sales volume of 200,000 units each quarter?" Teams from both sides were at loggerheads, arguing with sound reasoning, and trimmed the valuation to between 33.5 and 34.5. Though there was only a difference of one billion, this round Ningde was offering 10% of its equity for financing. With each additional billion in valuation, Tianxing Investment would need to put up an extra ten million in financing funds. And that was just for one billion. Lu Liang and Zeng Minqun sipped tea on the side, chatting and laughing carefree, but whenever they touched on matters of national importance, they inevitably circled back to the situation in the south. "This time, there's absolutely no giving in, nor can we afford to." Zeng Minqun's expression turned stern, utterly resolute. If they gave in this time, decades of progress since the reform and opening up would vanish into thin air, because wealth without the backing of military strength is nothing but castles in the air. Much like the neighboring country to the east, they are at the mercy of the United States' cuts, something Lu Liang surely could relate to, as he was reportedly one of the harvesters himself. Lu Liang agreed, "We definitely can't and won't back down, the question is whether the United States will." Zeng Minqun pondered for a long time, "Whether the United States will back down depends on whether our stance is firm enough." He couldn't help but reflect, "If we had the ambition of the strategic shifts from years past, even the United States wouldn't dare affront us, no matter how bold or daring." Lu Liang also sighed, "Back then, we had nothing to lose, the barefoot were not afraid of those with shoes. Now, we have families to consider."

Chapter 194: Tit for Tat

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