After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future

During these days in Modu, Lu Liang stays at Su Wanyu's home on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at Wang Chuting's home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and goes to the park in Su City on weekends to accompany Li Manli.

Yesterday was Friday, after saying goodbye to Director Zhao in the evening, Lu Liang went to the Skyline Garden, where Wang Chuting lives.

Since he's planning to travel to Xiangjiang soon, which coincides with Wang Chuting's due date, he decided to spend more time with her.

Though he has to be careful when sleeping and can do nothing more than hug her, Lu Liang finds it a leisurely time.

The next day, he woke up naturally.

Lu Liang walked out of the bedroom and into the living room, seeing Wang Chuting still exercising.

He leaned against the door frame, crossed his arms, and teased with a smile, "You don't look like someone who's nine months pregnant at all."

Perhaps it's the advantage of being tall and having a large frame, even at her due date, the proportion of her baby bump to her whole body doesn't seem as disproportionate as it was with Su Wanyu.

She wore yoga pants, a camisole bra, knelt on one knee, and raised both arms as if doing a stretching exercise.

"The doctor said that appropriate exercise before childbirth helps with postpartum body recovery," Wang Chuting glanced at Lu Liang.

"Then take your time exercising, this afternoon I'll take you to the hospital to register, and then I'll head over to Xiangjiang," Lu Liang said as he made his way to the dining area, where the nanny had already prepared breakfast.

Wang Chuting rolled her eyes, finished her morning exercise, and quietly inquired, "Is it for Ant Financial's IPO?"

"An entity of Ant Group's size can't possibly go public independently in Xiangjiang unless at least..."

Lu Liang stopped suddenly while drinking rice porridge and turned around in surprise, "How do you know Ant is going public?"

"It's all over the trending headlines online, and I heard from former classmates that the property prices over there have gone crazy,"

Wang Chuting expressed her regret, having spent six years in Hang City during her four years of university and the first two years of her career.

She has deep feelings for that city, loves the environment there, and plans to move her studio there in the future, having even picked out a house.

The villa community she fancied had an average price of just over 70,000, but after Ant Group announced its listing plan, which is expected to create a large number of millionaires, multimillionaires, and billionaires, the property prices in the entire city surged crazily.

Just the other day, she checked her friends circle; the average price was only 72,000, but the morning Ant announced its listing news, it shot up to more than 90,000 in an instant.

Lu Liang looked at the headline news, repeatedly confirming the authenticity of the news, and sighed lightly, "At the end of the rope."

If he hadn't met with Director Zhao last night and didn't know about their determination, he might have thought Old Ma's plan could succeed once the rice was cooked.

But now, he knows that Old Ma is doomed, and Ant Group certainly won't be able to go public.

"Is there something behind it?" Wang Chuting's eyes lit up, her journalistic instincts suddenly awakening.

"At the end of the rope" is not a good phrase, describing a villain's poor ability and inability to extricate themselves from a difficult situation.

Lu Liang chuckled, patting Wang Chuting's small head, "Do you know how much Ant Group's paid-up capital is?"

Wang Chuting thought carefully and answered, "At least 50 billion, right?"

Lu Liang chuckled and shook his head.

"US Dollar?"

Lu Liang still shook his head.

"100 billion?"

Wang Chuting was very good at creating emotional value, not asking directly, but guessing several times in a row.

But she didn't guess correctly. She got angry and threatened fiercely, "Will you tell me or not? If you don't, I'll look it up on Baidu."

"30 billion," Lu Liang said.

"US Dollars?"

"RMB!"

Wang Chuting clicked her tongue, "How is that possible."

Although she didn't major in finance, she knows that a paid-up capital of over 4 billion US Dollars couldn't possibly leverage a 175 billion US Dollar valuation.

"Nothing is impossible, it's just that there's an additional process in between."

Lu Liang sighed, "Back then, Ant received support from banks to issue low-interest ABS bonds, multiplying the funds by 100 times into 300 billion yuan, then using this 300 billion as a pledge fund for the risk pressure of 1.86 trillion yuan savings."

"Users' 1.86 trillion yuan savings are long-term used for lending, compounding interest, which is why there's the current valuation of 175 billion US Dollars."

30 billion leveraging 1.86 trillion yuan.

Old Ma not only wants to hold onto the money of hundreds of millions of users but wants Alipay to grow too big to fail.

1.86 trillion yuan, who knows how many people and how many families' lifetime savings it represents.

If Ant Group successfully goes public, Old Ma could cash out and leave, leaving this huge debt to society.

This is unlike the 2008 financial crisis, where the country used soaring real estate prices as a means to soft-land.

The real estate market, at least, has tangible assets; if it bursts one day, at least there's a house. If it's for a just-needed demand, one can grit their teeth through it, but Alipay has no tangible assets at all.

If it bursts one day, it would be like jumping from a hundred meters high into water—its effect would be exactly like crashing onto concrete.

With a splat, everything would be shattered.

This is also the reason why Old Ma criticized the Basel Accord.

Because, according to the minimum requirements of the Basel Accord, Ant would need to have 8% of its valuation as assets to go public, even if it is just 14 billion Dollars, but he doesn't want to fund it.

So he kept emphasizing credibility, credibility, credibility!

But how could the country hand over the money bags of hundreds of millions of citizens to a businessman based only on the word "credibility"?

"According to what you're saying, Ant's IPO is doomed to fail."

Wang Chuting still wanted to know more, but Lu Liang didn't want to discuss it any further; instead, he asked, "Where's the villa you were looking at? Send me the location."

Although Ant's path to IPO is doomed to be aborted, the property prices in Hang City are destined to return to their original point, possibly lower, but the increase of tens of thousands per square meter makes no difference to him at all.

After all, Tianxing Investment's account consistently has eleven-figure available funds.

Since Wang Chuting wants it, Lu Liang will invest in Chu Jun Media Culture Studio using the name of investment, putting the villa's property rights under her studio's name.

"Oh my, this pregnancy is really worth it, even the treatment is different," Wang Chuting said with a beaming smile, knowing that the house she's living in now is still under Lu Liang's name.

Indicating that Lu Liang had held back a bit before, but now, when it comes to a villa with a selling price of at least tens of millions, he didn't even ask.

Although he used it as an investment by equity, it was mainly to reduce personal random income tax, plus she is the major shareholder and general manager of the studio; it's up to her how to use it.

"It used to be just a lover, but now as the mother of the child, the treatment is definitely different."

Lu Liang smiled, lifted Wang Chuting's chin, and gently kissed her cheek, "Pack up and get ready, I'll take you to the hospital for admission in a bit, then I have to leave."

"Alright then."

Wang Chuting returned to her room excitedly, all the while calling out, "Auntie, I'm going to the hospital, so I'm leaving the house to you,"

Not long after, she changed into a loose dress, donned a European-style sunhat, and while holding onto Lu Liang's arm, she said with a smile, "Let's go, the luggage has been sent ahead."

Lu Liang chuckled lightly, on the way to the hospital, he suddenly said, "I can't stay with you all the time during this period, why don't you bring your mom over?"

Wang Chuting was delighted, "Can I?"

She had never told her mom about her pregnancy or about meeting Lu Liang.

She was afraid her mom would worry because she never saw her dad growing up and it was only her mom with her all the time.

Though Wang Chuting felt very happy now, her mom might not see it the same way, plus her mom had a bit of unhidden vanity.

"What's vanity?"

Lu Liang laughed silently and teased, "What you can't satisfy is called vanity, what you can satisfy is just a yearning for a better life."

"You really know how to talk."

Wang Chuting laughed like a blossoming flower, after several inquiries, finally with a nervous sigh, while in front of Lu Liang, she called her mom and helped her buy a high-speed rail ticket for the afternoon.

Lu Liang asked, "Why not buy a plane ticket? This way, I can't get to meet my mother-in-law?"

Wang Chuting leaned on Lu Liang's shoulder, her face filled with happiness, "She won't ride a plane, the high-speed rail is convenient enough."