CHAPTER 341: CHAPTER 337: DOUBLE-YOLK EGG (REQUESTING MONTHLY TICKETS)

What’s it like to be invited to a gathering of the wealthy?

Receiving an invitation to the Babi dinner party, Qi Hao was very surprised.

"Ba" refers to the "Stock God" Buffett, which means Warren Buffett. His father, Howard Buffett, was a stockbroker, had his own brokerage firm, and was a congressman.

"Bi" is the world’s richest man Bill Gates, whose full name is William Henry Gates III.

His father, William Henry Gates II, was a lawyer and philanthropist, and helped establish the "Gates Law Firm," one of the largest law firms in the world.

These two didn’t truly start from scratch.

This time they came to Huaxia mainly at the invitation of Yang Lan and the "Sunshine Culture Foundation" to host a charity dinner here.

Yang Lan was previously a host on CCTV.

She expressed that marriage has nothing to do with women’s happiness, and was mocked by netizens, saying: if it’s unrelated why did you marry twice, you enjoy eating meat but don’t allow others to drink soup, weren’t you the one clinging to wealthy men? Do you enjoy being crushed under a 200-pound fatty?

Furthermore, she dumped her ex-husband before marrying her current one, which counts as cheating during marriage.

This image of an independent woman really collapsed without reservations.

It’s unknown how her "Sunshine Culture Foundation" managed to invite Bill Gates and Buffett.

Some questioned whether Buffett coming to Huaxia was truly for charity.

From Buffett’s schedule, one can smell a bit of "commercial flavor": from Shen City to the capital and then to Changsha, as a shareholder of the private enterprise BYD Company, Buffett was set to participate in various events such as the "100 Millionth BYD Car Sales Celebration," "BYD New Car Launch," "BYD and Southern Power Grid Signing."

Ever since arriving in Huaxia, it’s truly been "BYD every day."

On one side is the "Stock God," on the other is "hype." "Stock hype" was thus born: stimulated by Buffett’s "effect," BYD’s stock price surged over 4% on the first day.

No wonder, Buffett’s dinner isn’t easy to get.

He was the first to treat the chance to dine with himself as a commodity to be auctioned.

Duan Yongping won the Buffett dinner bid in 2006 for 620,100 US Dollars.

Zhao Danyang won with a bid of 2.11 million US Dollars in 2008.

This old brother is quite interesting, even somewhat lacking in integrity.

Before his lunch with Buffett, he made a large purchase of a stock in advance.

At the lunch, this god didn’t ask the Stock God for any wealth secrets; instead, he kept recommending a stock to Buffett, and out of politeness, Buffett casually responded a few times and expressed that he’d look into the stock.

After the dinner, the old brother immediately disclosed the stock to the media, saying the Stock God Buffett greatly favored this stock, resulting in a 24% surge in stock price over four trading days, helping him earn 130 million before gracefully withdrawing.

Some said meeting Buffett and dining with him doesn’t mean much.

It’s more about a recognition of values, a pilgrimage of spirit and ideology, and gathering with textbook characters.

Little Buffett Qi Hao isn’t interested.

Pilgrimage?

Ah, pshaw!

Tongzi has been so helpful in working hard for Qi Hao, allowing him to possess a fortune of tens of billions from scratch, yet he vehemently calls Tongzi a "dog system."

If there really should be a pilgrimage, a pilgrimage to Tongzi would be way more useful than a pilgrimage to Buffett.

Fortunately, this time the meal is free; you just need to get an invitation to attend with your wife.

The Babi dinner is expected to invite 50 Huaxia tycoons.

For this, hero invitations were widely sent.

Judging by the top 50 on the wealthy list, Qi Hao wouldn’t make it. This year’s Forbes Huaxia Rich List shows the 50th person has a wealth of 12 billion.

Moreover, Qi Hao, an anonymous tycoon whose assets aren’t publicly disclosed, is unknown as to how much he really possesses.

Getting such an invitation is puzzling.

Who knows if Buffett heard about his Little Buffett reputation or if it was because he’s a fellow shareholder at BYD, mentioned by them.

This invitation is hot to the touch.

These days, the media keeps revealing which celebrity remains silent, or which giant is too busy to respond.

For a moment, the event supposed to be a gathering of wealthy elites appears somewhat awkward.

This might be because these two world-class tycoons don’t really understand Huaxia’s ways: announcing things so publicly beforehand makes attending problematic, whether one donates or not.

Just think, donating feels like being forced, being taught a lesson before reluctantly parting with money, which is frustrating.

Refusing donations is even worse, as it seems one fears giving.

Moreover, all attendees are top-notch tycoons, so the amount donated would be compared between them.

Screwing with things like this means that even those indifferent to money must care about face, especially for those with status, sometimes face matters more than money.

Rumor even has it that the purpose of Miguo’s two grand tycoons coming to Huaxia this time around is to persuade Huaxia’s wealthy to donate nakedly.

That makes people even less willing to join the fray.

Of course, there are always exceptions.

Chen Guangbiao is one such exception.

He made a public declaration, saying he’s willing to donate all his assets to charity upon his departure from this world.

This made things even more awkward.

He’s donating everything, so how can others follow?

They can’t.

Qi Hao donates sometimes, big or small. This year alone, he’s donated millions, but asking him to give it all away makes him quite reluctant.

Actually, behind Miguo’s donation of all assets is just a workaround to avoid high estate taxes and corporate tax evasion.

They donate money to particular institutions.

I set up a charitable foundation and then donate all my money to this foundation, allowing my descendants to manage it as an inheritance.

This is essentially what Buffett promised with his pledge to donate in 2006.

He indicated that he would donate 85% of his personal assets, around $37.5 billion, to five charitable foundations, including four managed by his former wife Susan and his three children, as well as the Gates Foundation.

He and Bill Gates donate to each other.

The money inside is still essentially inherited.

However, the public intellectuals don’t analyze the high inheritance taxes involved here; they only praise the great love of Miguo’s wealthy people.

These so-called philanthropists, who exploit the world while mass-producing the poor, are indeed laughable.

They make the most money in the world, yet their minds are solely focused on tax evasion.

Of course, domestic tycoons are no different.

With wealth in the hundreds of billions, they exploit the hardworking people earning just 2,500 yuan a month.

And even that monthly salary is taxed.

It’s automatically deducted before hitting their bank accounts.

There is no inheritance tax domestically, allowing the rich to pass on their wealth to the next generation without consequence.

All Qi Hao can do is honestly pay taxes, continuously expand the company, and provide well-paying jobs to more people.

He threw the invitation into the trash can and decided to go to Changchun to attend the film festival.

On the 28th, the 10th Changchun Film Festival awards ceremony was held at the Changchun Five-Ring Sports Arena.

The organizers did not expect Qi Hao to attend.

Under the Matthew effect, where the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker, the Changchun Film Festival is becoming less and less attractive to big names.

Many nominated actors did not show up at the event.

For example, Wang Xueqi, who was nominated for Best Actor and had a strong chance of winning, did not attend.

It’s said that he didn’t receive timely notice, so he didn’t schedule the time.

This revealed quite a few predetermined elements in the awards.

Because of Zhao Yanzi’s scandal, Zhou Xun, who replaced Zhao Yanzi as a nominee, also didn’t come.

She didn’t think much of the award, let alone wanting what Zhao Yanzi discarded.

Oh, something Zhao Yanzi didn’t want, is it my turn?

Zhou Xun obviously didn’t think much of Zhao Yanzi.

An Feng also attended with Qi Hao; she was invited to present the Best Director award.

This also highlights the rigidity of the film festival.

If you arranged for An Feng to present the Best Actor award that Qi Hao was nominated for, even if Qi Hao didn’t win, it would still have been a big draw.

The red carpet was walked by Qi Hao, Tan Nao, Han Jie, and An Feng together, all of whom were the creators of "hello! Mr. Tree."

Even though An Feng was essentially a cameo and could have walked the red carpet solo and stunned the audience, no one would have objected to her actions if she chose to join them.

Soon after the film festival began, Qi Hao was shocked.

The Best Newcomer Award went to actor Jia Yun ("First Military Regulation") and Zhao Xiaoou, Zhao Xiaoxi ("A Lin Sister Fell from the Sky").

Fortunately, an explanation quickly followed.

Jia Yun was the Best Newcomer Actor, Zhao Xiaoou, and Zhao Xiaoxi were the Best Newcomer Directors, both directors of "A Lin Sister Fell from the Sky."

However, the Best Cinematography Award soon sounded the alarm of another double award.

The award went to Huang Yuetai ("October Fortress") and Liang Ming ("Who Rules the Waves").

Triple award, double award...

Qi Hao sighed internally. It’s no wonder that such an awards ceremony attracted so few attendees.

With such a low buzz, playing with double awards only further diluted the value of the awards.

But then again, it’s because the buzz is so low that they reward those who come to the festival personally, ensuring they leave with an award.

It’s already a vicious cycle.

In addition to being nominated for Best Actor for "hello! Mr. Tree," Qi Hao was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for "October Fortress."

But when Sun Haiying won Best Supporting Actor for "Gaokao 1977," Qi Hao knew his Best Actor win was assured.

With his presence at such a prestigious venue, he was bound to receive an award somehow.

Indeed, after the Best Actress was awarded to Hui Yinghong and Zhou Xun, adding another double award, Qi Hao and Zhang Jiahui jointly won Best Actor.

Double award +2!

Refusing it was impossible, even if the gold content was insufficient and the stock increase meager, it would still add some value.

Moreover, Qi Hao could understand the hosts’ difficulties.

He always advocated for harmony and rarely conflicted with the hosts, as long as they didn’t go overboard.

Now that he had become powerful, there was no need to bully others with his influence.

An Feng and Huang Baiming jointly presented the Best Director award, which went to "Meng Erdong" director Hasi Chaolu...

And "hello! Mr. Tree" director Han Jie.

Wow, they distributed only 12 awards, and five of them were double awards.

Why not hatch one more, to make it exactly half?

It’d be better to increase the number of awards from 12 to 24 so there wouldn’t be so many double awards.