Chapter 816: The True Value of the Jinhe Prince’s Mansion—Why is Xiao He so good at making money?!
The Jinhe Prince Mansion Garden, a mansion located in the core conservation area of Beijing's old city, was originally acquired for development by a long-established Beijing enterprise. It was once a key project for Cultural Tourism in the old city, with future plans to integrate it into the old city's scenic area operations as a special, non-public attraction.
However, the enterprise later faced severe financial difficulties, incurring massive foreign debt in US dollars. The company's entire equity was mortgaged to an overseas consortium, and the property rights to the mansion, being one of the company's core assets, were included in the overall debt package.
At the time, this sum was truly astronomical, and even the authorities were unable to bear such a loss on their behalf. After much back-and-forth, the debt rights eventually fell entirely into the hands of the world's largest overseas auction house, the Grafton Auction House.
However, because the scale of this debt was massive and the auction house intentionally set the assets as indivisible—requiring the entire astronomical debt to be bought out to take over—coupled with Beijing's strict requirements for cultural preservation, renovation, and usage control, no one dared to touch it for decades, leaving it vacant and sealed off to this day.
The more detailed circumstances need not be mentioned for now. Because this happened decades ago when many relevant domestic and international policies were not yet fully implemented, the debt itself was essentially a bad account, strictly locked within rigid constraints by all parties involved.
Even if someone were capable and coveted this mansion, which soared in value every year due to its location in Beijing, they would first have to pay off all the other debts included in that package before they could officially acquire the property.
But this was basically impossible. In that bad account, apart from the land the mansion sat on, everything else was a massive pit. Moreover, because it had been left idle for so many years, the interest had snowballed into an astronomical figure. Later comers were certainly unwilling to spend a fortune to fill those other pits just for the sake of this one mansion. Whoever ended up with this thing would suffer a massive loss!
The Grafton Auction House clearly knew this, so they preferred to set an extremely high threshold and let it rot in their own hands rather than sell it at a loss. This way, it would always remain a valuable commodity for sale, rather than a money pit that had already incurred a loss.
Therefore, it was hard for others to imagine that the Grafton Auction House, which was linked to the world's largest capital and backed by the world's lifeline, would suddenly split this property off and, in a low-key manner that felt almost like a fixed deal, allow it to be auctioned off to someone else.
And to someone like this—a complete unknown.
Bao Wenyu looked the person in front of him up and down, still finding it hard to believe the results he had quietly investigated after learning about the matter.
Although Xiao He was indeed famous and his two companies were developing quite well, with achievements far exceeding those of most of his peers, but...
How could this be? How on earth did he manage to get the Grafton Auction House to open a back door for him and let him acquire this property at such a low auction price?
In fact, not only Bao Wenyu but many other big shots who had gotten wind of the news, such as Shipping Tycoon Bao Xingsheng, could not figure out the trick to it at all.
Especially when looking at Xiao He's public background: his family was a very ordinary working-class household, and there were no wealthy elders to speak of. His current achievements were basically built through his own hard work, and his parents couldn't really help him with anything.
When they asked the auction house, adhering to the principle of protecting client privacy, the auction house explained nothing and refused to reveal any information at all.
As they continued to observe from the shadows, they discovered that the agent handling the procedures for Xiao He was the famous industry insider Carlsen. He was even willing to fly to China personally for Xiao He and specifically went to Beijing to help supervise the reconstruction work of the mansion on-site.
On the contrary, everything was normal on Xiao He's side; he continued filming and doing whatever he usually did.
It was precisely because everything was normal and nothing could be investigated that everyone began to feel a sense of respect and wariness toward Xiao He.
Upon closer inspection, some resourceful people discovered that this kid, Xiao He, was damn good at making money!
This was far beyond the capabilities of an ordinary celebrity!
He made money from acting, investing, trading stocks, selling software, and selling patents. And he didn't squander the money he earned; he turned around and continued to invest, trade stocks, and create specialized AI teams to make even more money...
Money begets money, and it continues to generate more. Aside from his normal life, Xiao He would wave his hand, and all his money would be put to work to make more money.
The most terrifying point in all this was that in Xiao He's hands, this was all highly liquid capital!
In other words, what he had on hand was all active money! It was a massive amount of capital that could be mobilized, deployed, or thrown into the market at any moment!
Other wealthy people might indeed be worth billions or tens of billions, but much of that is tied up in real estate, office buildings, equity, antiques, luxury homes, and other fixed assets. If they really needed to come up with a large amount of cash immediately, they might need time to arrange the turnover.
But what about Xiao He? With continuous compounding, he earned more and more money, and it remained in constant circulation, meaning he could have a large sum of capital at his disposal at any time.
After realizing the existence of someone like Xiao He, many big shots who had paid attention to him because of the mansion couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.
Because in the eyes of the capital circle, Xiao He could now use his money to acquire, snipe, bottom-fish, manipulate, or buy out assets at any time. If this extreme cash liquidity appeared in a capital game, it would be almost unbeatable.
Moreover, with this kind of guy who kept a low profile and made a fortune in silence, no one knew exactly what his net worth was.
Perhaps only Xiao He himself knew best; even Liu Rulan and others who were always with him, or his close family and friends, were not entirely clear about it.
Thus, while Liu Rulan was still puzzled and shocked by how Xiao He was able to buy this mansion, the other people who had "investigated clearly" felt a sense of "sudden realization."
...Uh, but it seemed they hadn't quite realized it completely.
So, they still couldn't understand why the Grafton Auction House had given Xiao He a "back door" just like that! It couldn't be that Xiao He was really so stupid as to use real money to fill up that massive pit before finally acquiring the mansion, right?!
That would be too exaggerated! What exactly is his identity?!
Meeting Bao Wenyu's vigilant and curious gaze, Xiao He, who had inexplicably donned a mysterious aura, remained unmoved and just smiled slightly: "Guess?"
He looked at the night view in front of him, his tone leisurely: "Perhaps I was just lucky that day and happened to win the auction. Who can say for sure?"
Hmm, indeed it was good luck. He had visited a Taoist temple to pray, then prayed to the God of Luck, and with a few clicks of his fingers, a million points arrived, and he acquired such a significant mansion. How could that not be considered good luck?
At least Xiao He knew that there might be many people watching him now.
But because of the existence of the mansion, many people didn't dare to do anything to him.
—After all, people whose backgrounds are unclear are the most terrifying.
And these guys were always cautious; without knowing the situation clearly, they dared not make a move easily.
So, after discovering the hidden meaning behind the mansion, Xiao He felt indifferent.
Let them keep on imagining.
Anyway, their imagination didn't affect him. He had acquired the mansion fair and square.
Let them investigate and speculate.
If they could actually find out the truth, it would be a miracle.