Chapter 82: The Last Coin

Entering August, the weather in Pingyang also became a bit hot. The branches outside the Dongling High-Tech office building were gently swaying in the breeze blowing from somewhere.

Yao Luoying, in a lady's suit that set off her body curves, had hair scattered in front of her eyebrows, which was also occasionally blown slightly by the wind outside.

When Yao Luoying saw the scale of the funds Li Dongling was preparing to invest in the Zhixing Foundation, she couldn't help but look at Li Dongling in surprise. It was written that Li Dongling was going to invest a total of 2 million USD in this foundation!

"This money will not be invested all at once, but will be invested in four or five years!"

Li Dongling looked at Yao Luoying. "Giving people fish is not as good as teaching them how to fish!"

Getting up and opening the window a bit more, Li Dongling said in Yao Luoying's puzzled eyes, "The 2 million USD invested in the Zhixing Foundation, the bonus issued to the Qilin Award and the Hezun Award every year in the early stage, will not exceed 3 million RMB, and the remaining funds will be used for investment!"

"If you want an award to have enough authority, you need to run it for ten years as one day, which requires the foundation to have a steady stream of capital investment!"

"And if you want a foundation to run for a long time, just like the Nobel Foundation, running for decades or hundreds of years, you can't rely on donations alone. That way, sooner or later, you will run out of oil and lamps. Placing hope on others is a weakness of human nature and a fatal shortcoming of a foundation."

"I hope that the Zhixing Foundation can live without relying on Dongling High-Tech in the future!"

Li Dongling said with a smile, while Yao Luoying looked at Li Dongling standing by the window, with the yellow light of the sunset falling on him, making her slightly distracted. She could hear that Li Dongling's words seemed to have a special meaning.

Establishing Dongling High-Tech's Zhixing Foundation and promoting the Qilin Award and the Hezun Award were indeed to recruit talents for Dongling High-Tech and improve Dongling High-Tech's influence in the scientific research industry. But if it could incidentally leave something for this era, that would be the best. After all, people live a lifetime, and they always have to leave something behind.

The 2 million USD Li Dongling invested in Dongling High-Tech was mainly used for investment, including investing in high-dividend technology companies on NASDAQ, real estate, and other industries. In the future, professional managers would be invited to manage it.

If it went well, then the Zhixing Foundation in the future, even if it left Dongling High-Tech, could live on stock dividends, bonds, rent from office buildings, etc., and might even live better than some listed companies, and could run for many years!

Of course, by that time, as the founding family of the Zhixing Foundation, the future Li family could also get direct or indirect contacts and resources through the Zhixing Foundation.

For example, the cooperative relationship between the Zhixing Foundation and major universities, as well as those geniuses who had received the Qilin Award and the big shots who had received the Hezun Award. He didn't expect them all to remember the help the Zhixing Foundation had once provided them, nor did he expect them all to repay the Li family. As long as there were some who remembered, and could pull the Li family at a critical moment, then for the Li family, it was already inexhaustible!

When the weather became hot, the sales of electronic pet machines around the world also became more and more intense.

After testing the waters in the three major cities in the country, electronic pet machines officially began to be laid out in major cities in the country. On the first day of official sale, electronic pet machines set an astonishing sales volume of 620,000 units in the domestic market, with sales volume breaking 40 million, making many domestic media exclaim where the limit of electronic pet machines was.

It was clearly such a "plain" thing, how could it be so popular with young people.

Of course, with the hot sales of electronic pet machines in the country, various dissenting voices also began to appear, mainly concentrated on playing with things and losing ambition, affecting studies, etc.

But before these dissenting voices could form public opinion, news came from overseas again, making this public opinion misfire before it even started. Electronic pet machines officially broke 7 million in sales in Japan, and sales volume broke the 100 million USD mark!

Now the domestic public opinion environment was an era where the moon abroad was rounder than the domestic one. Japan was a developed country, praised by countless media and envied by many people.

But now, electronic pet machines had gone crazy in the Japanese market, earning 100 million USD in sales in a few months. Now there were many public opinions advocating learning from abroad, including Japan. This made the media that originally wanted to spray electronic pet machines unable to spray them.

Not only in Japan, but also in America and Europe, news of electronic pet machines being sold out continued to come. Especially in America, the popularity of electronic pet machines had risen from young people and students to the level of trendy toys. A group of rappers like Snoop Dogg, as well as Hollywood stars, etc., all hung electronic pet machines around their necks together with big gold necklaces, and publicly declared themselves loyal fans of this thing!

Those above like it, those below will be even more so. When trendy stars in America expressed this, electronic pet machines in America had almost reached the point of being frantically speculated.

Especially after Dongling High-Tech and Bandai jointly launched the collector's edition of electronic pet machines, a collector's edition machine was speculated to a price of 1,000 USD in New York.

Spending such a high price to buy it, you know with your toes that it must be some celebrities or stars who bought it for collection, but it didn't prevent a group of scalpers from taking the opportunity to speculate, coupled with the media's follow-up reports, making electronic pet machines in America completely hot, and the out-of-stock situation was even more severe than in Japan.

"It has become the most speculated product on the black market of the European Peninsula, along with AKs and prohibited items!"

The British *Times* also reported on the madness caused by electronic pet machines in Europe on its pages. In Europe, electronic pet machines had become a thorough speculative product.

When a product becomes a speculative product, its product attributes undergo a fundamental change. Whether users really like it and why it is popular are no longer important. Anyway, everyone wants it and is proud to get it. In this fanatical atmosphere, electronic pet machines abroad were even more popular and fanatical than in the country!

Regarding this phenomenon, Li Dongling and Dongling High-Tech also noticed it. The fanatical atmosphere of electronic pet machines abroad was absolutely abnormal. There must be many people speculating and hoarding goods, wanting to sell them at high prices.

But all Dongling High-Tech can do is run at full capacity to keep producing and keep launching new products. As for whether those scalpers and speculators hoarding the goods will overplay their hand and end up with the machines stuck in their hands, that is no longer Dongling High-Tech's concern.

"Based on the sales trend of electronic pet machines abroad, it is estimated that the sales volume of electronic pet machines abroad this year will be between 15 million and 18 million, and the total sales volume is expected to... break 200 million USD!"

In the conference room of Dongling High-Tech, Zhang Ao said to Li Dongling and a group of Dongling High-Tech executives.

Hu Zixian, Yao Luoying, Gao Peng, Chen Tao, Li Dongshan, and others all applauded, especially Hu Zixian, who was in charge of finance, who was full of smiles.

This year was also a year of ups and downs for Hu Zixian. Before the first half of the year, Hu Zixian was still worried about whether Dongling High-Tech could survive. In the second half of the year, he had to worry about Dongling High-Tech's huge overseas revenue tax issues.

As overseas sales payments arrived step by step, the funds in Dongling High-Tech's account began to become abundant. Now electronic pet machines were hot sellers. Whether it was domestic or overseas agents or distributors, in order to get more machines, they didn't dare to press payment, and the payments were very timely, which made Dongling High-Tech's cash flow quite abundant!

"As for domestic sales, it is estimated to be over 6 million, mainly due to the price issue. The selling price of 68 yuan is still a bit high compared to domestic income!" Zhang Ao said.

Most people's monthly wage income in the country now was only 200-plus yuan. It might be higher in Yanjing, Shanghai, and other places. Now the sales volume of electronic pet machines was mainly concentrated in cities and above. Sales in counties and towns were not very ideal. For families in these areas, spending dozens of yuan to buy an electronic pet machine still had to be weighed.

But even so, the country was simply too big, and there were still many users willing to buy electronic pet machines. Just like cars with a starting price of over 100,000, they could still sell over 1 million large and small cars in the country a year, so selling 1 million electronic pet machines in the country was not a difficult thing.

After Zhang Ao, Yao Luoying, Hu Zixian, Gao Peng, and others also reported to Li Dongling one after another, mostly related to the electronic pet machine business.

"The electronic pet machine R&D project team must continuously upgrade the product. In addition, Dongling High-Tech cannot bet everything on the electronic pet machine project. By next year, be prepared to lose it at any time!"

Li Dongling slightly reminded a group of Dongling High-Tech executives. Hearing his words, Yao Luoying, Hu Zixian, Zhang Ao, and others all looked at him in surprise.

"Everything must be prevented!"

Li Dongling said with a smile. Electronic pet machines could last at most a year or two. Even by this time next year, whether they could still be sold was probably an unknown.

People would get tired. The fanaticism for something that started suddenly would also disappear suddenly one day. If Dongling High-Tech placed all its hopes on it and produced machines regardless of everything, and one day it suddenly couldn't be sold, then Dongling High-Tech would probably have to spit out everything it earned before, and might even have to pay in quite a bit.

Just like those companies and scalpers who produced pagers and hoarded pagers in the past, they were ruthlessly slapped to death on the beach overnight, without giving them any reaction time.

So by next year at the latest, no matter what the market was like, Dongling High-Tech had to start reducing the production of the electronic pet machine project. The risk of the last coin was simply too great!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 83 =====