Tech Giants: Starting from Bankrupt Companies

278: Chapter 278 Millionaires Emerge in Large Numbers10:30 AM, Spark Electronic Technology cafeteria.

The moment the cafeteria doors were pushed open, a wave of heat mixed with the sound of human voices rushed out to meet them.

Hundreds of people were crammed into a dining hall that usually only sat half that many. No one was carrying a food tray, and no one was lining up for meals. The steamed buns and fried dough sticks on the tables had long since gone cold, and cups of soy milk were knocked over, but no one cared.

Everyone was looking down, staring at their phones.

The cold light from the screens reflected on their faces, like family members staying up for New Year’s Eve—but they weren’t watching the Spring Festival Gala; they were watching that number.

The account balance.

”Old Li, how many shares do you have?” A young man wearing glasses near the window shouted at the top of his lungs.

Old Li sat opposite him. He was forty-five years old, his hair was already graying, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were as deep as if carved by a knife. He stared at his phone, his lips moving twice, but no sound came out.

”Old Li?” the young man called out again.

Old Li slowly raised his head, his eyes rimmed with red. ”One... one hundred thousand shares.”

”Holy crap!” The young man stood up abruptly, his chair making a harsh scraping sound. ”One hundred thousand shares? At 150, that’s 15 million?”

Old Li nodded, as if in a dream.

”I have 80,000 shares, that’s 12 million!” The young man’s voice cracked. ”Together, we have enough to buy half an apartment building!”

At a table nearby, a middle-aged man in a plaid shirt looked up. His expression was calm, but the corners of his mouth couldn’t stop curling upward.

”Old Wang, what about you?” someone asked.

”500,000 shares,” Old Wang said.

The whole area went quiet for a second.

Then it exploded.

”500,000?!”

”75 million?!”

”Holy crap, Old Wang, you’re hitting the jackpot!”

Old Wang picked up his cold soy milk and took a sip, trying hard to maintain his composure. ”It’s nothing, all early employees have some.”

But his fingers were trembling.

Laughter, exclamations, and the sound of tables being slapped erupted all around. A young girl at the next table was laughing so hard she was rocking back and forth, almost sliding off her chair. Several old engineers, who were usually stern and serious, were now with their arms around each other’s shoulders, like soldiers who had just won a great battle.

After a few seconds of silence, someone suddenly shouted, ”This is paper wealth right now, we can’t sell! There’s a one-year lock-up period!”

”What’s there to be afraid of in one year?” Old Li slammed the table, startling everyone. ”In a year, when Xinghuo Electronics hits 300, I’ll have 30 million!”

”Right! 30 million!” the young man roared along.

”I’ll buy a Porsche then!”

”I’ll buy a large flat!”

”I’m going to take my wife to the Maldives!”

Laughter surged again, washing away the slight touch of melancholy from just before.

At the very corner table of the cafeteria sat a young boy.

He was twenty-two or twenty-three, wearing black-rimmed glasses and a wrinkled plaid shirt—the standard programmer attire. He had only been with the company for six months.

He stared at the numbers on his phone screen: Shareholding: 10,000 shares; Current stock price: 150.00 yuan; Account market value: 1,500,000 yuan. 1.5 million.

He locked his phone, unlocked it, and looked at it again.

Still 1.5 million.

He thought of the thirty-year-old house back home, with its peeling walls that leaked when it rained. He thought of his father being diagnosed with cirrhosis last year and his mother crying in the hospital corridor. He thought of how he sent 3,000 yuan home every month, and his mother would always say, ”That’s enough, that’s enough, keep some for yourself.”

1.5 million.

He opened WeChat and found the pinned chat box.

The last message was from three days ago, sent by his mother: ”Child, have you eaten?”

He typed: ”Mom, you don’t have to farm anymore. You and Dad come to Shenzhen, I’ll take care of you.”

Send. Three minutes. No reply.

He stared at the screen, his heartbeat accelerating.

Five minutes. The phone vibrated.

”Child, what are you saying? Mom doesn’t understand.”

He took a deep breath and sent it again. ”Mom, you don’t have to farm anymore. You and Dad come to Shenzhen, I’ll take care of you.”

This time, only two minutes passed before a call came in directly.

He answered it, and before he could speak, he heard his mother’s voice, trembling and tearful: ”Child, don’t scare Mom... Did you do something illegal?”

”Mom, I didn’t do anything illegal.”

”Then where did you get the money? Houses in Shenzhen are so expensive, and how much is your monthly salary? Did you take out a high-interest loan? Child, our family is poor, but we can’t do bad things...”

”Mom!” He interrupted her, his voice a bit loud, then immediately softened. ”Mom, listen to me. The company I work for went public, and they gave me stock. It’s worth 1.5 million now.”

Silence on the other end of the line. A long, long silence.

He could almost hear his mother’s breathing, rapid and suppressed.

Then came a cry. A cry that had been suppressed for too long.

”Child...” his mother’s voice was intermittent, ”You’ve made something of yourself... You’ve really made something of yourself...”

He held the phone, looking at the sky of Shenzhen outside the window, and tears fell too.

”Mom, you and Dad come to Shenzhen. Our family won’t have to farm anymore.”

The frenzy in the stock market that day also drove a boom in Shenzhen’s real estate market.

In the real estate agency office at OCT Pure Water Shore, Xiao Chen was eating takeout.

The phone rang. ”Hello, this is Xiao Chen from OCT Pure Water Shore.”

”Is that 175-square-meter unit still available?”

”Which one?”

”The 175-square-meter one, south-facing, middle floor.”

Xiao Chen put down his chopsticks, his mind racing. ”Sir, you mean the one in Building 12, right? Yes, it’s available, the owner is asking for 23 million...”

”I’ll take it, let’s sign the contract now.”

Xiao Chen was stunned.

”Sir... aren’t you going to look at the house?”

”No need to look again, my wife already saw it a while ago. Where is your office? I’m coming over now.”

The phone call ended. Xiao Chen stared at the number on his phone screen, and before he could react, the phone rang again.

”Brother, is that unit in Building 12 at Pure Water Shore still available? My colleague just said it was booked?”

”It... it was just booked...”

”What about the top-floor duplex in Building 8? The 280-square-meter one?”

”That’s also available...”

”I’ll take it. Coming over now to sign.”

Xiao Chen’s chopsticks fell to the ground.

For the next half hour, his phone didn’t stop ringing.

”Brother, is the top-floor duplex at Xiangmihu No. 1 still available?”

”Brother, the 50-square-meter small unit near the Tech Park, I’ll pay in full, no loans, I want to transfer the title today!”

”Brother, are there any listings left at Shenzhen Bay No. 1? No limit on the budget!”

Xiao Chen’s throat was hoarse as he yelled into the phone: ”There really are no houses left! We sold a month’s worth of volume this morning! The owners are all stunned!”

The news exploded in the real estate agents’ group chat: ”12 units sold at OCT Pure Water Shore! All to Spark employees!”

”8 units sold at Xiangmihu No. 1! It’s the Spark employees!”

”Small units near Nanshan Tech Park have been wiped out!”

Some owners received calls, and upon hearing that the buyers were Spark employees, they increased the price by 500,000 on the spot.

The buyer said: ”Fine, let’s sign the contract.”

Bystanders filmed videos at the scene and posted them online: the agency office was packed with people, some signing contracts, some swiping cards. The text accompanying the video read: ”Shenzhen’s property market was swept clean by Spark employees today.”

The comment section exploded instantly: ”Are these people crazy?”

”Crazy? They have a net worth of 50 million, what’s an extra 500,000?”

”A friend of mine at Spark said their cafeteria is full of millionaires today.”

”Cafeteria? Who’s eating? They can’t even count their money fast enough.”

At 5:00 PM that day, the Shenzhen Real Estate Information Network posted data: On May 8th, 268 pre-owned homes were sold in Shenzhen. Of these, 180 were bought by Spark employees. Proportion: 67%.

A netizen commented: ”This isn’t buying houses, this is a shopping spree.”

Another netizen replied: ”A shopping spree? That’s nothing. I heard some Spark employees paid in full directly at the sales office for 50-square-meter small units.”

A third netizen: ”What houses are they looking at? They’re buying the future.”

That night, the real estate agents of Shenzhen experienced for the first time what it meant to have ”happy troubles.”

Xiao Chen sat in the store with a stack of contracts in front of him, his hands still shaking.

He counted his performance for the day: 8 units sold, the commissions added up to enough for him to work for three years.

”Brother Chen,” the intern leaned over, ”What kind of company is Spark anyway? How are they so rich?”

Xiao Chen looked out the window; the lights of Shenzhen Bay were as brilliant as a galaxy. ”I don’t know,” he said, ”but I do know one thing.”

”What?”

”From now on, when I want to buy a phone, I’ll only buy Spark’s.”