Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled-Chapter 835 - 638 Major Situation

After the entertainment gala ended,

Chen Pingsheng still met quite a few old acquaintances, like Yang Mi and Liu Yifei.

And others like Zhao Liying and Shishi.

The entertainment industry that had been so booming before—who would have thought it’s now crushed without resistance by short videos and web series.

He shook his head and stopped thinking about it further.

Day by day, and in the blink of an eye, it was mid-October.

While he was at the group headquarters, sipping tea and gazing at the clouds drifting over the Great Demon City,

the real estate industry delivered a big news bomb: the once-unstoppable Hengda, led by Xu Pidai, had completely exploded.

And the debt it revealed this time was shockingly high—two trillion yuan.

What does that even mean?

An inconceivable number.

It went on to hammer the already precarious real estate industry with another heavy blow.

To describe how outrageous this debt is—most people would feel like their heads were about to burst just hearing about it.

Mr. Pidai really played it big this time.

In total, the listed companies dragged down by Xu Pidai’s implosion are no less than thirty, but also unlikely to be fewer than seventeen or eighteen.

The news spread, and it’s safe to say the entire financial sector was shaken to its core.

But this wasn’t the most frightening part.

The most frightening part was that in some places, they only managed to build the entry gate, yet the houses had already been sold out.

Now, so many buyers are still waiting to collect their new homes—just imagine how massive the conflicts in this situation could get.

The issue arose, and it must be resolved. Mr. Pidai has already been placed under restrictions on his freedom.

As for his car-making venture, it’s nothing but a joke.

Even Peng Ying called him, saying many relatives back in their hometown had purchased Hengda’s pre-sale units—what’s to be done about this mess now?

What else can be done?

Just wait for higher-ups to clean it up.

Peng Ying also asked how many years this would take.

In truth, Chen Pingsheng didn’t know either. It could be three years, or maybe five, even ten.

Who could say for certain?

If this had happened during a period of skyrocketing housing prices, these unfinished projects could still easily find a successor within two years.

But once housing prices stabilize—or begin to decline,

there is no way a private company would take over. It wouldn’t be considered a good deed—it’d be playing the fool.

The ones hurt the most by all this, undoubtedly, are those who made their down payments, pay their mortgages on time, yet never get the home they bought.

Unless one personally experiences the agony of these people, it’s impossible to grasp the despair they feel by looking at a mere report on paper.

Tang Jing also came looking for him, mentioning that Song Shuiqing’s husband’s family, particularly Tang Li’s mother, wanted to talk to him.

It was impossible to stop them—Mrs. Tang came along with Su Xiaoxi’s mother and Su Real Estate’s chairman, Su Changlin.

"Send them to the reception room,"

Chen Pingsheng knew what they were here for—it was because they couldn’t hold on any longer. He’d previously said they shouldn’t come to him unless they were entirely backed into a corner.

Now that Xu Pidai’s crash happened, it had certainly thrown their lives into chaos.

The most obvious consequence: no one dared to buy pre-sale apartments anymore.

This effectively cut off a significant portion of the cash flow for these real estate developers.

If this were a few years ago, the problem wouldn’t have been as severe. But now? The lack of money is truly fatal.

The four of them waited about half an hour in the reception room before Chen Pingsheng finally showed up.

It wasn’t that he was deliberately being difficult—he just wanted them to understand: if you want to borrow money from him, don’t bother talking about old friendships and familial ties.

What you really need to do is put tangible assets on the table—like undeveloped land or commercial properties.

Coming to him with empty promises of interest payments? That’s treating him like a fool.

In times like these, discussing interest payments is pointless—even the principal amount might not be recoverable.

Tang Jing sat beside him, holding a notebook, ready to record the meeting.

Chen Pingsheng started: "I know why you’re here, and I know the situation you’re currently in. Let’s skip the irrelevant chatter—borrowing money is impossible, but I can use other means to acquire some of the assets you’re holding. You may speak now."

Assertive, still as assertive as ever.

There’s no escaping it—they couldn’t even find grounds to refute. Who else but him had the deep pockets in times like these?

Mrs. Tang thought for a moment and said, "Mr. Chen, you have the Global Economic Research Institute—nothing escapes your notice. So I’ll be upfront: our Tang Family’s total liabilities amount to 190 billion. We still hold land reserves that exceed 120 billion, and if we factor in unsold housing stock and commercial assets, our total assets clearly exceed our liabilities."

"Talking about that is pointless."

Chen Pingsheng said, "Everyone knows you’re holding onto a large amount of land reserves. If you calculate based on this year, it might indeed still be worth 120 billion, but next year it could drop to just 100 billion, and another year might see it fall to 80 billion. The biggest problem now is that land assets are depreciating over time, while liabilities don’t. On the contrary, the interest generated by your debts each day is a number that’s beyond imagination.

"The difference between these positives and negatives—surely I don’t need to calculate it further for you."

Mrs. Tang, along with her son Tang Li, had expressions that shifted again and again. The reality was exactly as Chen Pingsheng described.

This was the most troublesome aspect, and the last shred of hope in the hearts of the Tang and Su families was waiting for higher-ups to bail them out.

There were many methods to bail out the market—the most direct would undoubtedly be opening the floodgates.

Leveraging bank funds for their liquidity needs, or perhaps issuing trillions in additional fiscal measures similar to the actions taken in 2008.

"Our Tang Family holds two decent residential land parcels—one in Jing’an and one in Golden Mountain. Both were bought by us at the end of last year, one for 12.8 billion and the other for 9.8 billion. I can transfer them at the original price."