After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future-Chapter 284 - 283: A Dead End, Switch Careers as Soon as Possible

"Activities like these are best left to the Americans."

Tesla was hosting a delivery event for their locally produced Mao Dou 3 and live broadcasting it on Douyin. Before the event started, Musk, with a smile on his face, passionately performed a rendition of "YMCA."

Although originally a gay anthem, time has transformed this song into a symbol of positive and united spirits.

Musk’s dance moves were so enchanting that they could rival any merchant’s, and as the emotion deepened, he became a master accordion player.

"It’s truly liberating."

Lu Liang remarked, this time without any hint of teasing.

Musk held a 26.5% stake in Tesla, which, with the current market value, meant his net worth exceeded 130 billion RMB.

If wealth were the measure of status, that would probably put him on par with Shunfeng’s Wang Wei, for whom it might be humiliating to dance like that on stage.

But Musk carried no such burden; he squinted his eyes, his expression full of enjoyment, utterly intoxicated.

The main reason was that he was genuinely happy, after all, enjoying the enormous industrial system and demographic dividend of the East Country.

The cost of producing a Mao Dou 3 in the United States was close to 46,000 US Dollars, around 300,000 RMB.

But for a Mao Dou 3 rolling off the production line in the Modu super factory, the material cost was only 200,000 RMB.

Moreover, if the production capacity were to increase, costs could be further compressed.

The profit margin soared from just under 5% to 31%.

Such profitability would make anyone happy, and not only because they would earn more but also because they had the power to lower prices.

While watching the delivery event, Lu Liang reviewed Tesla and Musk’s information to prepare for the upcoming meeting.

As it approached three o’clock, Zhuo Yifan knocked on the door to remind them that the car was ready, and they should set off to the hotel to meet Musk.

The news of Musk’s stay had already spread, and many media journalists were squatting at the hotel entrance.

"11288, is that Lu Liang’s car?"

"Damn, it actually is."

"Musk? Lu Liang? This is going to be huge news!"

In an instant, reporters swarmed at the entrance, but luckily, the business Mercedes following the Bentley quickly stopped upon seeing this.

Six security personnel jogged to the Bentley, opened the back door, and escorted Lu Liang for his departure.

"Mr. Lu, are you here to meet Mr. Musk?"

"Mr. Lu, you’ve already left private equity, so in what capacity are you meeting with Mr. Musk today?"

Reporters, with their cameras and microphones, surrounded Lu Liang, each trying to capture breaking news.

In some ways, Lu Liang and Musk had a lot in common.

Though Tesla prides itself as a tech company, it’s also labeled as a financial firm, and Lu Liang, whose main business was finance, was also planning to personally enter the automobile manufacturing industry.

Just standing together, the two of them were a topic-rich scene.

"We are friends," Lu Liang said with a calm smile.

Upon receiving the message, Musk rushed to the hotel entrance, all smiles, with his arms wide open.

Though they had never met before, it did not prevent them from embracing warmly like old friends upon their first meeting.

Leaving the media journalists on site

with a precious photo of their hug.

"Lu, ni hao," Musk said in his broken Chinese.

He had started attempting to learn Chinese since he began dealing with Modu’s municipal government the year before last, but alas, he really lacked a knack for languages and just couldn’t get the hang of it.

"Hello, there are a lot of people here, let’s go inside first," Lu Liang replied with a smile, also in his broken English.

His level of English was clearly a notch above Musk’s Chinese, though he lacked a speaking environment. Su Wanyu had said more than once that his spoken English had a Tokyo accent.

This made her feel quite responsible as a teacher.

However, Lu Liang didn’t mind; as long as he could listen, speak, and read, that was enough. A heavy accent only troubled the listener, what did it have to do with him?

Besides, just last year, Little Wang mocked Lei Jun for his heavy accent and embarrassed himself internationally, only to end up apologizing sincerely and deleting Weibo posts.

The two arrived at the reception room prepared for them at the hotel.

"Lu, I didn’t get the chance to meet you when I visited China the year before last. It’s a real pity," Musk said with a smile brimming across his face.

He had visited Modu once before, at that time for the first delivery event of the Mao Dou X.

Back then, he had really wanted to ride on the coattails of Lu Liang’s popularity, but it seemed Lu Liang had caught on to his intentions.

Lu Liang said with a laugh, "Back then, we were just getting started and quite busy. I really couldn’t make the time."

Musk couldn’t help but sigh, "Indeed, the East Country’s new energy market has developed really fast these past two years."

He involuntarily looked toward Lu Liang, knowing that the market’s speedy development owed much to him. In his eyes, Lu Liang would not be out of place as a vice chairman at the first World New Energy Vehicle Congress held this July.

"Elon, you didn’t invite me here today just to sing my praises, did you?"

Lu Liang wore a smile on his face, but inside he couldn’t help but scoff at whoever spread the idiotic belief that Westerners are always straightforward and never bother with polite chit-chat.

Musk’s scheming was almost on par with Old Ma’s. The chairman’s spot for the World New Energy Vehicle Congress had been confirmed—reserved for a national vice leader.

Even BYD’s Wang didn’t qualify for the vice chairman’s position, what more right did he have?

Musk broke into an awkward smile, "Of course not. The main thing is, I wanted to talk about the future development of the market."

Last year, the East Country sold a total of 512,000 new energy vehicles, with global sales totaling 595,300.

Although Tesla’s market cap had risen to 80 billion USD and had been recognized by the market, he was still puzzled.

What use was a high market cap? It was simply the market’s expectation of a company’s or an industry’s future.

If those expectations were not met, the higher they were held up now, the harder they would fall later.

Global annual sales of less than 600,000 units did not give him a clear view of the industry’s future. He could only force himself not to think about it or to accept the market’s expectations of Tesla.

His visit to China this time was partly for the delivery of the Mao Dou 3, but also to seek answers from Lu Liang.

Perhaps even Lu Liang was not aware of how highly the Western world regarded him.

If he were willing to embrace Wall Street, he would receive the same treatment as Buffett and Soros.

"Wilson has talked to me about you many times. Every time he speaks about you, it’s as if he is describing God," Musk said.

Wilson was the investment head of JPMorgan’s third group. He was the one who advocated investing in Tesla from the beginning, determined to make it the next Microsoft or Apple—a tech giant leading the world.

Wilson’s reputation on Wall Street wasn’t much inferior to Buffett’s. It was just that he typically represented JPMorgan, so people remembered JPMorgan and overlooked his role.

After many years of investments with few failures, Wilson’s myth had shattered upon encountering Lu Liang, receiving blow after painful blow.

In the six confrontations they’d had, the only two times he’d profited were once when Lu Liang was on his side and another when he had actively chosen to ally with Lu Liang.

As adversaries, he had never won, leading to his current reverence for Lu Liang akin to that for God.

A win once or twice might be luck, but triumph six or seven or eight times showed a testament to sheer strength.

Lu Liang was silent for a while before he spoke softly, "Elon, don’t listen to what others say, watch what they do."

More than once, people had asked him this question, including Li Bing, Li Xiang, and others.

The financial market had high expectations for the new energy sector, almost wanting to lift them to the heavens.

But the real offline sales, like cold water, repeatedly reminded them that this was the current state of the market.

They feared that electric vehicles would not be accepted by the public, fearful that the industry wouldn’t meet the lofty financial market’s expectations.

In that case, everything now would be castles in the air.

Ningde with a market cap in the trillions, Tesla with a market valuation of eight trillion USD.

Lu Liang was well aware of the potential this market held.

He really wanted to tell Musk to give it up, that electric cars were dead in the water and that Tesla might as well switch industries now.

But if he truly believed it was a dead end, why would he keep pouring money into it?

And regardless of whether Lu Liang spoke up or not, Tesla would continue to move forward unwaveringly because it had already been pinned with so much hope.

It was like Li Erfeng—maybe initially, he had no ambition to capture the throne, but later on, it became a situation where not contesting meant death; those who supported him would die too.

Since he couldn’t change Tesla’s developmental path, he might as well extend a favor by going with the current.