These days, individual investors and institutions who bought Renren.com shares made a killing.
First, in early April, Renren.com released its annual financial report.
Many relevant parties publicly interpreted the financial report as soon as it was released.
Among them, a financial blogger named Xueqiu on Toutiao provided the best interpretation.
"Hello everyone, Renren.com has just announced its unaudited consolidated results for the fourth quarter and audited consolidated results for the full year ended December 31, 2011.
The report shows that Renren.com's total revenue for Q4 2010 was 11.7225 billion yuan, a 53.4% increase from the same period last year; its total revenue for the full year of 2011 was RMB 42.4961 billion, a 53.41% increase from the same period last year. Let's delve into this in detail, combining the financial report."
"For a long time, investors have worried whether Renren.com, with such a large scale, should be 'slowing down' its growth. Fortunately, the data proves that everyone's concerns are unfounded. Here are two charts for you. Chart one shows Renren.com's active users on its main site and the proportion of active users, and chart two shows active users of social games."
"Seeing these two charts, did everyone think Renren.com was 'finished'? Because the data has largely slowed down, even forming a straight line."
"In fact, everyone was overthinking it. Renren.com, as an SNS social platform, has lost its social attributes after the birth of Weibo and WeChat, and is currently gradually evolving into a BBS forum type. And social games have clearly hit a bottleneck; the expected lifespan of these things is simply that short."
"But these are nothing for Renren.com. First: China's internet users still grew by 12% last year; second: Renren.com's new generation of flagship products are conquering territories, including WeChat, Weibo, Toutiao, and Zhihu. Anyone using the internet can hardly get away from these products. And it is thanks to the rapid development of the above products that Renren.com has not only successfully transformed but has also reached a new level."
"Another strong suit for Renren.com—gaming—saw rapid growth last year. The peak concurrent users for DNF exceeded five million; remember, last year this number was only 3.2 million. To still grow this much at this scale is quite exaggerated, to say the least. As for League of Legends, it's even more incredible.
Last year, the peak concurrent users for League of Legends were only 970,000, but today this number has surged to 8.27 million. Note that these are global users, as Renren.com is the parent company of North American Riot Games. Furthermore, benefiting from the explosion of social games on Facebook, Renren.com, as a top partner, also gained the most."
Whether performance is good or not is up to the market to decide.
The day after Renren.com released its financial report, its after-hours market capitalization surged by 8%, with the share price rising to $140, bringing its total market capitalization to $87.5 billion.
This market capitalization just surpassed Amazon's $78.72 billion, placing Renren.com tenth among global IT companies by market capitalization.
That wasn't all. Following the entertainment group's press conference, Renren.com, as a shareholder, naturally saw its stock price rise again.
As of May 2nd, Renren.com's US stock price broke through $160, and its total market capitalization finally exceeded $100 billion.
There was an uproar online.
"Awesome! In just one month, it surpassed both Qualcomm and Cisco, and now its market capitalization ranks eighth."
"With a bit more effort, above it are Intel, Oracle, and Samsung Electronics. If it can beat them, it'll reach fifth, and can go head-to-head with Google."
"Even Baidu has a $50 billion market capitalization. Compared to that, Renren.com's market capitalization is severely underestimated."
"Exactly! Baidu is just a search engine, nothing else is good. Renren.com's social software almost dominates my life and work."
"RBAT, the others are falling behind. Alibaba's total revenue last year was only 5.5 billion, Baidu's 7.9 billion, and even Tencent only had 19.6 billion. Renren.com is more than double Tencent's and eight times Alibaba's."
"I don't really care about Renren.com's market capitalization; I'm more concerned about how much money Chen Pingjiang has."
"Didn't you see last year's Hurun Report? Wasn't it already over 150 billion last year?"
"Hurun is inaccurate, severely underestimated. Chen Pingjiang's current wealth is probably so much he couldn't even tell you himself. Orange Phone is selling so well, Renren Buy is also fiercely popular, and there's the catering group, plus his Renren.com holdings. My goodness, I can't even imagine."
"What's there not to imagine? It broke 300 billion ages ago, right? The amount of wealth is just a string of numbers on a bank card for him; it stirs no emotion anymore."
"I cried out of frustration, Mr. Chen, would a three-thousandth of your wealth be okay for me?"
"..."
Chen Pingjiang didn't actually feel much about these things; it was the netizens who were more excited.
He knew his own business best; the numbers were all on paper.
He could only get the money by continuously cashing out Renren.com shares, but if he did, Renren.com's stock price would drop.
Renren Buy was still losing money; valuation was just valuation.
Orange Tech, on the other hand, was profitable, but the money couldn't be touched, nor would it be distributed as dividends.
Instead, the funds were invested in R&D, as chips and wafer fabs were money pits.
So, what money could he actually get his hands on each year?
First, dividends from Zhizhen Catering Group and Renren.com Group.
Second, salaries from various partnership companies. As for his sole proprietorships, it was all his own money, so what was the point of paying himself a salary? It just served as a tax write-off.
Third, investment income from Tianyuan Capital and secondary market investment income, which was the main source of Chen Pingjiang's cash flow.
Among these, dividends amounted to about 1.2 billion yuan annually, and salaries totaled 200 million yuan per year.
For Chen Pingjiang at the moment, these weren't considered much money, not even as much as he made from buying Apple stock recently.
But if Chen Pingjiang ever needed money, that would be a different story.
First, he could sell his US stocks in companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Qualcomm at any time.
These stocks, at current market prices, were worth approximately $1.5 billion.
Second, going a step further, selling shares in companies like JD.com held by Tianyuan Capital would also likely yield close to a billion US dollars.
Finally, cashing out Renren.com shares would easily bring in several hundred million US dollars.
Therefore, the funds Chen Pingjiang could readily use were not that vast; much of his wealth was in real estate and stocks.
Although these stocks were very valuable, Chen Pingjiang wasn't short on money, so why sell them? Wouldn't it be better to hold them for appreciation?
It's foreseeable that with the listing of the catering group and Renren Buy, Chen Pingjiang's paper wealth would inflate to a terrifying figure.
Just a few days later, another topic climbed to the top of the trending searches.
"Chen Pingjiang visits his alma mater, Dongjiang University of Finance and Economics, to announce a donation of 100 million yuan."
Enthusiastic netizens weren't particularly sensitive to this news; instead, they dug up other charitable donations made by Chen Pingjiang.
"I only found out today that the Project Hope primary school built in our village last year was funded by Chen Pingjiang."
"That's not news, is it? Mr. Chen has funded hundreds of Project Hope primary schools nationwide."
"He already donated a lot of money for natural disasters. What surprised me more was his donations to funds like the ALS Foundation and social welfare funds."
"Some people also earn a lot, but they're all stingy, not knowing how to take on social responsibility."
Personally, Chen Pingjiang felt he had a responsibility to engage in philanthropy, as much of this money was, after all, contributed by users and gamers.
Taken from the people, used for the people.
However, he didn't like to make donations secretly and be some anonymous hero.
If he donated, he donated.
Of course, he wouldn't make a big show of it everywhere, flaunting how much he donated.
......
While this trending topic was making headlines.
Chen Pingjiang had already arrived in Helsinki.
The last time he left was at the end of February, and now it was early May, meaning it had been over two months since he last saw Xiaodoubao.
Although Chen Pingjiang often made video calls with Ge Mengshi, distant water couldn't quench immediate thirst, making Chen Pingjiang miss his daughter almost to the point of madness.
The closer the car got to the villa, the more Chen Pingjiang missed his daughter.
In the end, he even started giggling with joy, startling Dongdong, who was driving.
Upon arriving at the villa, as soon as he got out of the car, Chen Pingjiang eagerly rushed inside.
He ran, softly calling out:
"Xiaodoubao, Xiaodoubao, Daddy's here!"
Not having seen her son for several months, Xu Fangjuan seemed quite nonchalant, nodding towards the outside:
"Shishi took Xiaodoubao for a walk by the lake. Did you bring the Lao Gan Ma I asked you to bring from back home?"
As soon as Chen Pingjiang saw his daughter wasn't inside, he immediately rushed out, saying as he ran:
"Didn't bring it, didn't bring it. People can buy that at the Chinese supermarket. Who brings that stuff? Besides, aren't you going back soon anyway?"
Xu Fangjuan rolled her eyes:
"That little rascal."
Chen Guangming watched the scene with a smile:
"Did you notice? It seems your temper has improved since we had a granddaughter. If this were before, you probably would have scolded him."
Who knew Xu Fangjuan immediately turned back with an unfriendly expression and asked:
"Are you implying my temper used to be bad?"
Startled, Chen Guangming waved his hands repeatedly:
"That's not what I meant, that's not what I meant."
Xu Fangjuan ignored his excuses and nodded herself:
"It does seem a bit better than before. Now when I'm upset, seeing Little Radish makes me feel much better. Seeing those fair, tender little arms and legs and the chubby cheeks, my heart just melts."
Chen Pingjiang searched around the lake for a while and finally found the mother and child.
Ge Mengshi was standing by the roadside, pushing a stroller, looking at the wildflowers.
She couldn't help but bend down to pick one, then sniffed it at her nose, and handed it to Xiaodoubao to smell.
Chen Pingjiang, a smile on his face, shouted to Ge Mengshi:
"Ms. Ge, don't pick the wildflowers by the roadside!"
Ge Mengshi suddenly turned around and saw Chen Pingjiang standing in the distance, smiling at her.
She was immediately delighted.
She said to her daughter:
"Xiaodoubao, guess who's here? Daddy's here."
"Eee-yee-yah-yah, eee-yee-yah-yah."
Xiaodoubao, however, didn't care about Chen Pingjiang at all, but was interested in the wildflowers.
Chen Pingjiang quickly walked to the stroller, wanting to pick up Xiaodoubao and show affection.
But just seconds after he picked her up, Doubao pouted her little mouth and burst into tears.
"Don't you recognize Daddy? Don't cry, Daddy will buy you Transformers."
Clearly the temptation didn't work.
Doubao cried harder and harder, struggling while crying, looking tearfully at Ge Mengshi, wanting a hug.
Seeing that he couldn't soothe her after a long time, Chen Pingjiang could only reluctantly hand Doubao back to Ge Mengshi.
Ge Mengshi, an expert at reading expressions, immediately noticed the loneliness in Chen Pingjiang's eyes and gently comforted him:
"Don't take it to heart. She's just a child, it's normal. She'll get used to you after a while."
Chen Pingjiang waved his hand:
"It's fine. I just feel a bit guilty for not spending more time with you two. It must have been hard taking care of the baby during this time, right?"
Ge Mengshi smiled and shook her head:
"It's alright. I usually don't even get to take care of her much; my mom and your mom fight over who gets to care for her. Even if it affects their rest at night, they're tirelessly happy, and we also have a confinement nanny."
Babies three to four months old can distinguish between mom, dad, and strangers by sound.
So, when a baby cries, and parents pick them up and sing lullabies, the crying stops.
When a stranger's voice appears, showing confusion or crying are all signs of recognizing people.
In addition, they can recognize people by smell.
Due to lactation, mothers have a milky scent on them, especially breastfeeding mothers, and babies are particularly familiar with this milky smell.
Therefore, as soon as Doubao was handed to Ge Mengshi, she immediately stopped crying, making Chen Pingjiang feel even more depressed.
There was nothing he could do; after all, he didn't have time to be with his child every day.
So, Chen Pingjiang pushed the stroller, and Ge Mengshi held the baby, as the two walked and chatted.
Occasionally, Ge Mengshi would also greet the foreigners around them; they were all neighbors living nearby.
After returning to the villa, Father Ge and Mother Ge also rushed back with Chef Old Li.
The three of them had gone to the nearby supermarket to buy groceries.
"Old Xu, we couldn't find Lao Gan Ma, it's out of stock. Did Pingjiang bring any?"
"No, that little brat probably forgot long ago."
"..."
Chen Pingjiang heard them talking about him as soon as he reached the door.
After greeting Father Ge and Mother Ge, Chen Pingjiang spent almost all his time with Doubao.
He rarely had a chance to accompany her, and he would have to leave again soon, so every second he could spend with her now was precious.
During dinner that evening, the interactions between Father Ge and Mother Ge, Xu Fangjuan, and Chen Guangming visibly increased.
Everyone tacitly understood that they would be returning to Dongjiang soon.
Ge Bingyi had already halted his business in China, intending to settle down peacefully in Finland.
He really liked the peaceful and quiet environment here; besides being a bit cold in winter, there were no other complaints.
Interestingly, after dinner that evening, Ge Bingyi suddenly said:
"Doubao will sleep with us tonight."
Hearing this, Ge Mengshi's face flushed.
Mother Ge remained silent, and it took Chen Pingjiang a while to realize what was happening.
They were planning to leave him and Ge Mengshi some private time.
But he also wanted to sleep with Doubao that night, such a dilemma...
The moonlight, like water, spilled freely, casting beams onto the bedroom floor.
With a series of faint thuds and subtle, somewhat restrained guttural sounds, it ended.
Only then did Chen Pingjiang take a deep, ragged breath, remove the condom, and throw it into the trash can.
Even if Ge Bingyi was desperate for a grandson, Chen Pingjiang had to consider Ge Mengshi's health and wouldn't consider it for at least another year.
Ge Mengshi's face showed contentment, and it took her a while to recover before asking:
"How are things at the company?"
Chen Pingjiang chuckled:
"You're remote-controlling things from Helsinki every day. What documents haven't you seen? Why ask me? I'm even less clear than you are."
"No, it's just that I feel it's fine if I don't go back. Suqin has long been capable of managing things on her own."
Chen Pingjiang was silent for a moment, then dotingly stroked Ge Mengshi's cheek:
"I know what you're thinking, but Helsinki isn't a place to stay long-term. Even if Qin Suqin can manage things on her own, I'm not at ease; I still need you to go back and oversee the big picture. As for you, for these two years, stay here as you wish, but you must go back eventually. I also want to take more time to spend with our child whenever I can."
"But... I'm afraid it'll be difficult for you. First, let me say I don't blame you at all, because everything was my choice, and I feel very happy now. I have you, and I have our lovely baby."
Ge Mengshi paused:
"Last time, I heard my parents talking about your engagement with Yan Yan. When you get married later, you can't possibly live out every day, can you?"
Chen Pingjiang waved his hand dismissively:
"We'll talk about future matters later. Engagement isn't marriage, and getting married at thirty is just right for me. Maybe by then I'll have found a solution."
"Then... I want more."
Chen Pingjiang: "..."
"What's going on? It's already three times, sister."
"It's been so long since I've 'eaten,' can't you let me have my fill?"
......
Chen Pingjiang stayed in Helsinki for half a month this trip, and no one at the company knew anything about it.
Renren.com thought Chen Pingjiang was working at Orange Tech, and Orange Tech thought he was working at Renren.com.
During these two weeks, Chen Pingjiang was either at the villa or strolling around its vicinity every day, spending almost all his time with the child.
Happy days are always short-lived, and soon it was time to say goodbye to Doubao and return home.
Waking up in the morning, Xu Fangjuan and Chen Guangming had already packed their luggage and were sitting on the sofa chatting with Father Ge and Mother Ge.
After Chen Pingjiang came downstairs, everyone began to say their goodbyes.
This time, Ge Mengshi personally took her daughter to see Chen Pingjiang's family off at the airport.
On the way, Xu Fangjuan held Doubao tightly in her arms, unwilling to let go:
"Little darling, Grandma will miss you so much when I can't see you."
Xiaodoubao knew nothing of it, instead happily kicked her feet back and forth, drooling, and making "eee-yee-yah-yah" sounds.
Chen Pingjiang found it amusing and advised:
"You're almost crying, is it really necessary? You can see her every day with video calls when you go back."
To his surprise, Empress Dowager Xu gave him an unfriendly glare:
"Get out of the way, don't make me smack you."
Chen Pingjiang: "..."
As the Gulfstream G550 slowly began to taxi on the runway, Ge Mengshi waved at the plane with the baby.
While waving, she said to Doubao:
"Baby, say goodbye to Daddy!"
Xiaodoubao, innocently mimicking Ge Mengshi, sweetly waved her tiny hand.
On the plane, seeing this scene melted Chen Pingjiang's heart.
Sisters Yin Zhen and Yin Hui, standing nearby, saw it clearly.
Especially after seeing Ge Mengshi and the baby on the ground just now, they were even more convinced that Ge Mengshi had come to Helsinki to await childbirth.
Calculating the time, it was just right.
The two whispered to each other.
Yin Zhen said:
"Sis, she's actually not the legal wife. If this got out, the whole world would probably be shocked."
Yin Hui rolled her eyes at her:
"You signed a confidentiality agreement, and I don't think you're crazy."
"I think I could too. That baby is also quite cute."
"Give it up. Don't you see if Mr. Chen is even interested in you? It's all wishful thinking on your part."
(End of Chapter)