Chen Pingjiang hadn't expected that something considered utterly unacceptable by normal standards would be met with such extraordinary tolerance—and even an extra push—from Yin Zhen, one of the twin sisters.
This was probably rooted in the environment they grew up in.
Just as Chen Pingjiang was caught between amusement and disbelief, Yin Zhen suddenly perked up as if she had discovered a whole new world.
"President Chen, I actually have another secret about my sister. Do you want to know?"
"What secret?"
Yin Zhen leaned closer to Chen Pingjiang with a mysterious look on her face.
"My sister thinks she hides it well every time, but she has no idea I found out long ago. Every time the two of us get passionate, my sister actually feels it too! Earlier, while you two were doing it, I could barely contain myself either—it felt just like I was the one doing it in person. I suppose this is what you'd call telepathy!"
"..."
Chen Pingjiang felt his worldview being shattered on the spot. Telepathy can even work like that?!
"Don't doubt it—I'm telling the truth! When I brought it up to her earlier, she was too shy and refused, but how could I pass up such a golden opportunity? I just had to drag her into the water with me. Otherwise, she'd always feel awkward when we meet in the future. And what if she complained to my parents one day? So, taking all factors into account, I decided to be a little willful."
"But it seems you didn't ask whether I agreed or not, did you?"
Chen Pingjiang added dryly.
Instantly, Yin Zhen froze.
After a long pause, she let out an embarrassed giggle.
"I... I guess I really didn't ask for your opinion, President Chen. I just assumed all men would love it."
"Don't act clever like that in the future."
For Chen Pingjiang, if he wanted women, what kind couldn't he get? Did he really need people plotting ways to send women into his bed?
Realizing Chen Pingjiang was upset, Yin Zhen quickly grabbed his hand, apologizing profusely,
"I'm sorry, President Chen. Please don't be mad."
Just then, to his surprise, Yin Hui also walked into her bedroom.
"It was voluntary on my part, President Chen. Please don't blame Xiao Zhen."
Right now, Chen Pingjiang had a massive headache, finding himself caught in an awkward position where he looked like the villain no matter what.
Earlier, just as Yin Hui's body had begun to react, her younger sister Yin Zhen had burst into her bedroom, taking in the entire intimate scene at a glance.
After a round of persuasion, Yin Hui had somehow, as if possessed, agreed to the plan of swapping places.
Now that her mind was clear again, she also realized how insane that impulse had been, completely at a loss as to how to wrap things up.
The three of them remained at a standstill. After a long silence, Chen Pingjiang waved his hand.
"Let's call it a day. I'm heading back."
Hearing this, Yin Zhen panicked visibly. The next second, she wrapped her arms tightly around Chen Pingjiang's waist, kissing him wildly.
She was genuinely terrified that Chen Pingjiang would never return again or even cut off contact entirely. If that happened, how was she supposed to maintain her lavish lifestyle?
Having grown accustomed to living like a high-society heiress, Yin Zhen felt she could never go back to her old life.
Inherently bold, Yin Zhen continued kissing him while shooting a glance at her sister.
Yin Hui's fair face flushed deep red in an instant. Caught between stepping forward or retreating, her entire mind went blank on the spot.
Chen Pingjiang was both amused and annoyed, simply letting Yin Zhen sit atop him. Then, he noticed that Yin Hui, who was still standing by the doorway, suddenly grew weak in the knees, her breathing becoming increasingly ragged.
Yin Hui was clearly aroused—this telepathy thing was actually real!
A short while later, both sisters lay on the bed holding hands. Their expressions were remarkably identical—a blend of pain and pleasure—as soft, breathy moans escaped their throats.
...
Chen Pingjiang hadn't expected that, young as he was, he would walk out of the twin sisters' home the next morning holding his lower back.
An intensity like that was truly more than an ordinary man could handle.
Then again, the joy was doubled as well.
Only now did he truly grasp the meaning behind the famous poem:
"The spring night was far too short, and the sun rose high; from then on, the King skipped the early morning court."
Upon returning to Zhongshan Villa, Empress Dowager Xu took one look at Chen Pingjiang's exhausted, drained appearance and shot him a harsh glare. Ignoring him entirely, she turned and headed to the neighboring villa to check on Little Beanbun.
"Son, take care of your body. Moderation is key," Chen Guangming sighed softly, looking up from the newspaper he was reading on the living room sofa.
It was tough being his father. On one hand, he wished Chen Pingjiang could be faithful in his relationships; on the other hand, he knew that even if he spoke up, this little brat wouldn't necessarily listen to him.
"Hey, Dad, what are you talking about? I just got a stiff neck from sleeping wrong last night, that's all."
Chen Guangming's gaze remained fixed on the newspaper.
"If you've got a stiff neck, why are you holding your waist like that?"
With a stiff, forced smile, Chen Pingjiang waved his hand and scurried back to his room to lie down.
---
December 13th.
Zhizhen Catering, dubbed "the most expensive IPO in Hong Kong history," officially debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX).
Opening with a sharp rise of 5.62% at HK$18.80, the gain soon expanded to 10%, reaching HK$19.58 per share, pushing its total market capitalization past HK$57 billion.
Zhizhen Catering's offer price was set at HK$17.80 per share with a lot size of 1,000 shares. This meant the minimum entry threshold for investors reached HK$17,800, making it the most expensive IPO entry requirement in Hong Kong history to date.
According to the official announcement, Zhizhen Catering's Hong Kong public offering was moderately oversubscribed, receiving valid applications for 212 million shares—equivalent to 5.56 times the total number of shares initially available under the Hong Kong public offer.
The final number of shares allocated to the Hong Kong public offer was 38.208 million shares, representing approximately 9.00% of the total offer shares (assuming no exercise of the over-allotment option).
The international placement was significantly oversubscribed, with the final number of offer shares allocated to international placees reaching 386 million shares, with an over-allotment option of up to 63.679 million additional shares, representing 15% of the shares initially offered globally.
The announcement stated that the net proceeds were approximately HK$7.269 billion. Roughly 60.0% would be used to fund expansion plans; about 20.0% for developing and implementing new technologies; around 15.0% for repaying credit facilities; and approximately 5.0% for working capital and general corporate purposes.
Analysts pointed to three main reasons why Zhizhen Catering garnered such strong market favor:
1. Diverse and Hot Brands: Zhizhen Catering owned a vast portfolio of top-tier brands in the domestic market that were wildly popular among consumers. Its 2010 revenue ranked among the top three catering groups in China.
2. Formidable Background: Backed by its major shareholder Chen Pingjiang, the company enjoyed channel and financial advantages unmatched by any rival catering brand.
3. Rapid Global Expansion: Beyond its explosive domestic growth, Zhizhen Catering was among the first to pioneer an overseas strategy, establishing brand footprints across major cities in Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America.
It was worth noting that at this point in time, Yum China, Haidilao, Xiabu Xiabu, and the wave of popular milk tea brands had not yet gone public.
Zhizhen Catering had firmly established itself as the undisputed market leader among listed catering companies in Hong Kong.
Furthermore, for this IPO, Zhizhen Catering Chairman Ge Mengshi decided not to utilize the "green shoe mechanism" (over-allotment option).
Almost every IPO utilized the green shoe mechanism to stabilize post-listing share prices, including later tech giants like Xiaomi and Meituan.
Ge Mengshi's decision to forego it demonstrated immense confidence on the part of both Zhizhen Catering and its lead underwriters.
Market analysts noted that this move signaled immense strength to investors. Of course, Chen Pingjiang wasn't about to leave Zhizhen Catering's IPO entirely exposed or left solely to the mercy of the market.
To fulfill his responsibility to all IPO participants, Chen Pingjiang's private foundation stepped in to support the stock price—helped by the massive windfall he had recently reaped from the US stock market.
Another school of analysis suggested that Ge Mengshi avoided the green shoe mechanism primarily to prevent further equity dilution, as triggering it would involve over-allocating additional shares.
---
Even though Chen Pingjiang wasn't physically present in the financial arena, his legend echoed everywhere.
Even without him attending the ceremonial bell-ringing, once news outlets caught up with Ge Mengshi, they would ask two or three questions about the IPO before inevitably shifting the topic back to Chen Pingjiang.
Questions poured in:
"Why didn't Mr. Chen Pingjiang attend the IPO bell-ringing ceremony for Zhizhen Catering? Is it because he doesn't care about or lack confidence in the company?"
"How is Mr. Chen Pingjiang's current state of mind?"
Ge Mengshi could only offer a helpless smile, replying that Chen Pingjiang was doing great and thanking the press for their concern.
Realizing they couldn't squeeze any scoop about Chen Pingjiang, the Hong Kong media redirected their spotlight back onto Ge Mengshi.
While major outlets like Ta Kung Pao, Wen Wei Po, and Hong Kong Commercial Daily covered Zhizhen Catering's listing dutifully and professionally...
A few tabloid rags brazenly ran trashy headlines like:
"Mysterious Mainland Beauty CEO Takes the Reins of Catering Giant—Unusual Relationship with a Certain Tycoon Suspected!"
Gossip headlines like this were everyday clickbait for Hong Kong tabloids, and Chen Pingjiang didn't waste sleep over them. He simply instructed his legal team to sue every single tabloid for defamation, demanding full retractions and public apologies.
Within days, every last one of those tabloids meekly printed front-page apology statements.
---
When Ge Mengshi returned to the Zhongshan Villa in Dongjiang with her team, she walked in to see Chen Pingjiang crawling on all fours across the floor, with Little Beanbun perched on his back, clapping her hands excitedly.
To coax his daughter, Chen Pingjiang had pulled out all the stops, completely discarding any image of China's richest man.
"Oh my goodness, get up! If outsiders see this, they'll laugh themselves to death—you'll end up in the news again,"
Ge Mengshi said with a stifled laugh, quickly scooping her daughter into her arms.
However, Little Beanbun still wanted to ride her father's back. She reached out toward Chen Pingjiang, and when she couldn't reach him, she burst into loud wails.
Chen Pingjiang patted his knees nonchalantly.
"This girl only responds to this. No other trick works on her."
---
Having taken a month-long break, Chen Pingjiang made his return to the Qingshan Lake Terminal Base.
Over the past half-month, the stress left over from the Renren short-squeeze war had completely evaporated.
Occasionally strolling around with Yan Yan or catching up with Zhang Xinyue and Cong Nini, he had enjoyed a rather pleasant time.
However, with year-end affairs piling up, he had no choice but to get back to work.
He first visited MiHoYo and DJI.
Cai Haoyu and his team were as stubborn as ever, pouring their hearts into developing Honkai Impact 1.
Chen Pingjiang didn't bother trying to dissuade them—it was best to let them run into a brick wall on their own.
Honkai 1 was a buy-to-play game that hadn't incorporated microtransactions yet, priced at a modest flat fee of just six yuan.
After launch, its performance was mediocre, with meager in-app revenue barely keeping the lights on.
On the other hand, Frank Wang at DJI was running a tight ship. According to his personal timeline, the DJI Phantom 1 could launch as early as late 2012—a full two years ahead of the original historical schedule.
After wrapping up his visits to MiHoYo and DJI, Chen Pingjiang returned to Orange Technology.
"In less than a month, the iPhone 4S goes on sale domestically. Meanwhile, the Xiaomi M1 officially hit the market on the 18th, and their production capacity is steadily catching up. With tigers ahead and wolves behind, how do you all plan to tackle this?"
Inside the conference room, the senior executive team of Orange Technology sat in full attendance.
Lin Bin shook his head.
"Xiaomi poses little threat to us, but the iPhone 4S is a formidable rival. As the final iPhone crafted under Steve Jobs, nostalgia and remembrance alone will drive massive sales. What's more, iCloud services and the Siri voice assistant are features our Orange S2 currently lacks. Plus, the iPhone 4S boasts major upgrades in GPU speed and graphics performance over the iPhone 4. Objectively speaking, its performance edges ahead of ours."
He pivoted his tone.
"However, our Orange S3 development is complete and will be handed over to factories for mass production in a few days. In terms of performance, it comfortably surpasses the iPhone 4S, equipped with Nvidia's Tegra 3 quad-core processor clocked at 1.5 GHz. We've also integrated our own cloud services, though we won't be able to ship an intelligent voice assistant just yet."
Chen Pingjiang nodded and asked,
"What's the reason?"
"Mainly because the recognition rate is abysmal—to put it bluntly, it's just not smart enough, and the voice assistant fails to comprehend basic commands. We need more time on this front; we started too late. Siri's parent company was founded in '07, with research dating back to '03. Our technological accumulation falls far short."
After a moment's thought, Chen Pingjiang stated bluntly,
"If the voice assistant feature isn't mature, don't put it out there to make a fool of ourselves. Siri isn't even that practical anyway, so there's no need for us to ape others—let's play to our own strengths instead. By the way, what dates is MWC scheduled for this year?"
Zhou Guangping replied,
"February 27th."
"Our annual launch events usually take place in early March. Is there any problem pushing it forward this year to host it right at MWC?"
"No problem at all."
The Mobile World Congress, or MWC, held annually in Barcelona, was one of the most influential events in the global mobile communications industry.
It was a world-class exhibition and conference, drawing industry leaders, government delegates, tech experts, and global media.
In previous years, Orange Technology hadn't attended MWC since its distribution was strictly domestic.
But 2012 was a different story.
Orange Phone's core strategy was expanding overseas. Launching its next-generation flagship smartphone at MWC was essential to introducing Orange Technology and the Orange S3 to a global audience.
"Thank you, everyone. This upcoming year won't be easy for any of us—we have a heavy load ahead," Chen Pingjiang said with genuine feeling. "2012 is a watershed year for the smartphone industry, and we cannot afford a single misstep."
Lin Bin exchanged glances with the team, and they all smiled.
"I've already issued the orders in advance, and everyone is mentally prepared. Both our Super Factory and BYD's manufacturing plants are working overtime to stockpile sufficient inventory over these final two months. In major cities across Europe and Southeast Asia, our flagship retail stores are ready to open simultaneously with the launch of the Orange S3. Additionally, our new-generation PAD 3 will be released alongside it."
"Good. With you handling things, Old Lin, I can rest easy. If we pull off 2012 successfully, I'll reward everyone handsomely at the end of the year."
Calling 2012 a watershed year for smartphones wasn't an exaggeration on Chen Pingjiang's part.
This was the year the domestic smartphone market witnessed explosive growth, soaring 130.7% year-on-year, with annual sales approaching 200 million units.
This was the year Nokia's market share collapsed from 29.9% to a meager 3.7%, stripping it of its former reign.
This was the year Samsung, powered by its carpet-bombing product line strategy, saw smartphone sales surge 153%, taking the crown as the new market leader in China.
This was the year the iPhone 4S proved insanely dominant, becoming the undisputed king of phones.
This was also the year Huawei, under Yu Chengdong's aggressive leadership, underwent sweeping reforms, while Xiaomi leveraged its aggressive price-to-performance strategy to capture market share rapidly with some of the most powerful specs available.
This was the year China Mobile launched its TD-LTE trial network in Hangzhou, marking the early dawn of 4G in China.
Aside from Huawei and Xiaomi, tech giants like Baidu, Alibaba, Shanda, Sina, and 360 were all jumping into phone manufacturing, alongside internet newcomers like Small Pepper, Dakele, and Green Orange.
Orange Phone not only had to face Samsung, Xiaomi, and Apple on home turf, but also had to go head-to-head with them on global battlegrounds.
Failure was simply not an option.
"For this MWC, we must secure the premier central exhibition hall and make a grand global debut. The title of releasing the world's very first quad-core smartphone belongs to Orange Technology."
Lin Bin smiled.
"According to the grapevine, LG plans to unveil their flagship at MWC too, which is also a quad-core phone. HTC and Samsung are also set to launch their quad-core devices this year."
"Then we clash—LG isn't much of a match for us anyway. By the way, how is the selection for our brand ambassadors coming along?"
Shi Zhu, Senior Vice President in charge of Orange Phone's brand promotion, quickly opened her notebook and reported,
"Our female brand ambassador is tentatively set as Scarlett Johansson. Her portrayal of Black Widow in Iron Man 2 was hugely popular, and with The Avengers releasing this May, where she plays a lead role, her popularity will surge even higher."
"Our male brand ambassador is football star Lionel Messi, currently the reigning king of world football."
Shi Zhu had wracked her brain to pick these two ambassadors, feeling quite proud of her choices.
To her surprise, as soon as she finished reporting, Chen Pingjiang's face darkened, and he stayed silent for a long moment.
Anxious, Shi Zhu asked timidly,
"Chairman Chen... is there something wrong with these two brand ambassadors?"
Chen Pingjiang nodded.
"Scarlett is fine. Swap Messi out for Cristiano Ronaldo."
Shi Zhu was bewildered.
"Chairman Chen, is there an issue with Messi? He just won the Ballon d'Or last year, and we've already made preliminary contact with his team. If we confirm it, we can sign the contract and shoot the commercial in no time."
"Then I'll have to trouble your team to work overtime and switch to someone else. In short, I'm just not very fond of him. Sorry for the trouble, Vice President Shi."
Detecting the impatience in the big boss's tone, Shi Zhu didn't dare argue further and quickly shook her head.
"No trouble at all! Right after the meeting, I'll have my team contact CR7."
(End of Chapter)